Google is Offering $250 Free Adwords Account Advertisement!!!!

You might think that am kidding but its true. $250 in adword advertising is worth to experiment with until January 31, 2009.

Try it: http://www.google.com/ads/250/v.html.

Mobile Payments Getting Traction On Social Networks, But Fees Are Sky High

Users are increasingly choosing dead simple SMS mobile payments for micro-transactions on social network applications and gaming sites (it fills the void while they wait formore direct action), but super-high transaction fees are limiting growth.

The problem is that legacy transactions - specifically scams that give users a “free” ring tone with the fine print mentioning a monthly charge as high as $20 - have brought in so much cash to the carriers that they’ve gotten used to taking 50% or more of the total payment in fees. For the market to grow to encompass legitimate transactions, those fees have to drop dramatically. For that to happen, the social networks need to get involved directly in carrier negotiations.

Two companies, both headquartered in Europe, are already targeting mobile payments for apps - Mobillcash(UK) and Zong (Switzerland).

When you buy a virtual shotgun on Mobwars, for example (and they are selling a lot of them, up to $1 million per month) you have to pay real cash. You can choose to pay via a number of services (Facebook doesn’t offer a direct payment solution yet), including either Mobillcash or Zong.

If you choose Zong, you enter your phone number on the site, get a text message with a four digit code, enter the code on the site and you’re done. It’s by far the easiest way to charge a transaction online outside of Amazon one-click.

Zong’s fees aren’t transparent, but Mobillcash’s are. Mobillcash has a clunkier interface (you have to choose your carrier and go through extra steps), but they show what their fees are because to get, say, $1 into the Facebook app you have to pay $1.50 on most carriers. That implies a 33% transaction cost, almost all of which goes to the carrier. Many of Mobillcash’s payments are way beyond 33%. Zong says they pay an average of a 40% transaction fee to U.S. carriers.

Those transaction fees are severely limiting the size of the market. Lots of merchants and application developers would love to take mobile payments, but paying 40% or more of the transaction to the carriers is a non-starter.

Zong argues that the fees are actually much lower than they seem because conversion rates (when chance that money will change hands once a payment button is pressed) are more than 50%. If that seems low, compare it to PayPal conversion rates that are reported to be a fraction of that.

Regardless, though, any merchant selling an item with actual marginal cost (virtual items are by definition free to produce, so higher payment fees can be tolerated) aren’t going to allow mobile payments via SMS. If the carriers were to lower those fees (or if they were forced to by market forces or the government), a very rich ecosystem could blossom, and the carriers would get the majority of the value created.

What Happens If Carriers Ignore the Opportunity

Chances are the carriers won’t lower their exorbitant payment fees anytime soon. What I’m guessing will happen is that services like Zong and MobillCash, as they add valuable users who like to pay via SMS, will simply offer to move those users to credit card payments. Users still pay by just entering in their phone number and then typing in a 4 digit code they receive via SMS, but the charge would go to their credit card instead of their phone. The difference in fees is so large that customers can be offered a very large incentive to simply store their credit card and use that instead of having the charge go to their phone bill. And checking out is still much, much simpler than typing in your name, address and credit card details.

Funniest Google pic

Today morning, i was viewing a website, that did not changed it's URL for the search results. I mean if you view the first search result page, or the last the URL was the same. I was a bit uncomfortable, and tried to see the Google's URL for search results. And it changes accordingly.
However, i did some changes in the URL and i got this funny pic. The fact that makes this pic funnier is the Google logo at the bottom. The O is misplaced, and hangs at the bottom.
How can this happen. We all know there is a relation between the result page and the number and style of O that appears in the Gooooogle, but having an O dropped out from the name is quite funny.
All i did was to change the start parameter to 10,000. And then i got a message saying that ,"Sorry, Google does not serve more than 1,000 results for any query. You asked for results starting from 1,000,000.". It means the designer had probably expected this kind of query, and hence this error message.
Now i tried to play a bit more, i changed the start parameter to a negative value say -99 and i got the search page 1, for that. Even i changed it to alphabetic value and the start page was visible. So, they are doing a validation for these values, then why leave behind the values greater than 1,000. And even more, leaving apart the O :-)

Have a look yourself and enjoy.


Here is a better and enlarged view of the image.

Invisible mode for Google Talk

You must have used the invisible mode on Yahoo Messenger. If you ever wished the same feature for Google talk or any such other XMMP protocol based chat service, the wait is finally over. There have been recent developments in this field and people are coming up with plugins or rather tweaks at this instant of time, which allows to be invisible, while you can still chat, see online people, learn about any new unread email and know when someone scrapped you on orkut.

The Plugin

Manual Way
Here is what you need to do if you want to be invisible.

1. First download PSI (0.10) or Miranda IM. For Psi versions later then 0.10 you'll need to modify the options.xml file to enable Invisible status. In order to learn about how to configure Miranda for google talk account see,this help, or for Psi IM, look here . For detailed instructions to configure PSI,
   

1. Now log in as Invisible status provided by the client.
2. Open the XML Console and inject the following code through it
3. Repeat the above step whenever you want to refresh the buddy list.. the last line of the code causes the server to return Email Notifications.

5



5

We are currently doing the alpha testing, and have plans to release a beta plugin soon.

Detailed configuration in PSI-IM

For those who are new to PSI-IM, here is a brief tutorial on how to be invisible in Google Talk.

For those who are using PSI v 0.11 or above, you need to modify the options.xml file. If you are on Microsoft Windows XP, then you can find the file at C:\Documents and Settings\username\PsiData\profiles\default. If you are on Linux, look into /home/username/.psi/options.xml. Look in for the string invisible and set its value to enable/ true.

Next, login as invisible in PSI.



Next, choose your google talk account and right click to get the XML Console Option. When the XML console is open, don't forget to check the Enable option in the bottom left. Have a look at images below.




Next, you need to copy the code given above into the input window. Open the XML Console window by pressing th XML Input button on the right bottom. And paste the code as shown below.


After you inject the above code click on "Transmit", you will see various messages. Don't worry, they are the status of your buddies. Now close every open window, except for the main window. Now start chatting with your favorite bussy, as normally. You can see the buddy, but s/he will see you as offline.

NOTE::
You have to repeat the above procedure, everytime, you want to get status updates.

The working

When you log in as Invisible the server replies with an error msg saying this mode is not supported. Although you wont receive any buddy list status or other notifications but the server doesn't disconnects you.

Now when you inject the the XML the server sees you online and replies you with the buddy status of your friends and immediately it sets your status unavailable. The server then sends this packet to your online buddies. GTalk/Other clients when get this packet they set your status On and Off. Usually this transition is so fast that practically you remain offline.

In this Invisible Mode you can start a chat with online friends. However there are some issues with the case when someone tries to send you a message in the first place. Most of the times you do get notification, and hence, you can start chatting directly, however there have been reported cases when it will go as offline message and you will only see it in Email Notification (Google puts an unread Email for the offline :-)

Is Your Senator On YouTube?

Can’t get enough speechifying from politicians on C-SPAN? Now you can catch them on YouTube. Many elected representatives in Congress already have their own YouTube channels, but YouTube has just launched two central hubs to make it easier to find videos from your senetor or congressman.

These channels are pretty spare right now, but they tend to consist of actual speeches on the House or Senate floor (snooze), updates on upcoming legislation, or a call to action to get constituents to help support a particular bill (for instance, see Nevada Senator John Ensign’s video below on making the Internet tax ban permanent).

Most of these videos have very low view counts, less than 500 each. Nobody was watching these videos before. Putting them altogether in their own channel is not going to make them more popular. If Senators and Congressman want to use YouTube as a direct channel to the electorate, that’s great. But can someone teach these folks a little about Web video production values? They come across as little more than commercials.

Microsoft Leads $24 Million Round In N-Trig To Bring Multitouch To PCs

We’re going to be seeing a lot more touchscreen computers. One of the features of Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system is that it supports a multitouch user-interface (much like on the iPhone or a Tablet PC). To further the adoption of such touchscreen technology, Microsoft led a $24 million round in Israeli startup N-trig. Other investors included Aurum Ventures, Challenger Ltd., Canaan Partners, and Evergreen Venture Partners. In just the past two years, the company has raised $52 million.

Apple selling refurbished MacBook Air for $999

Apple's online store has reduced the price on its refurbished first-generation 1.6GHz MacBook Air (model no. MB003LL/A) from $1149 to $999, according to DealNN. That's $400 off the already reduced price of $1399 and the lowest price seen to date, which may be of interest to some readers looking to pick up the ultra-light portable for the price of a 13-inch white MacBook.

CES tempting Apple-related electronics makers from Macworld

No matter Apple's plans to attend CES on its own, those accessory builders who once only attended Macworld are being offered a chance to exhibit in a special section of the larger Las Vegas show.

Jason Oxman from the Consumer Electronics Association, which manages CES, told CNET this weekend that the organization has set aside a portion of the show floor for "Apple-related" electronics.

The official doesn't name any of the firms or clarify whether any of these are dropping one trade show for another. However, he explains that the decision to launch a unique section is the result of talks regarding "2010 show participation" and that many of the companies involved have been receptive.

"We are pleased with the feedback we've received regarding this [Apple-friendly] space," Oxman says.

The news follows a troublesome Macworld Expo for its host IDG, which saw Adobe, Belkin and others pull their booths from the show late into the run-up for the San Francisco gathering. In a number of these cases the reasons for withdrawing are known to be strategic decisions unrelated to the expenses of running the booths or to the poor economy.

It also potentially signals a broader shift away from an Apple-specific presentation by both third parties and Apple itself. The Mac maker is believed by sources of AppleInsider to be attending CES itself and so would create an incentive for related companies to attend the event themselves.

Oxman declines to comment on whether or not Apple will exhibit at CES, but does observe that Apple is already a CEA member and has a "longstanding relationship" with the technology promotion group.

Apple for its part has never hinted at making such a shift and publicly claims that its withdrawal from Macworld Expo is a lessened need for trade shows.

This week in Apple: Macworld 09, MacBooks, and DRM's demise

It was a wild week in the world of Apple, as Macworld Expo '09 kicked off Tuesday with Apple's final exhibition at the show. Apple may have made waves with its withdrawal, but the week was all about announcements, like the new 17-inch MacBook Pro, Apple's major iLife and iWork software updates, and the rumors of DRM's demise that have been greatly exaggerated. Let's recap Ars' biggest Apple stories of the week.

Company may have spilled Mac mini beans. SeeFile Software says the latest version of its digital media assent management software supports "new Mac mini hardware." Oh really?

First! 14-year-old already in line for Macworld '09 keynote. The first person in line for tomorrow's Macworld keynote is a 14-year-old from Santa Barbara named Nick. The Ars team grilled Nick on his expectations for tomorrow and why he would wait almost 27 hours to see Phil Schiller on stage, and he set us straight.

Getting naked with DRM-free iTunes upgrades: the details. The iTunes Store migration to DRM-free tracks isn't due to finish until April. You might want to slow down and wait to see how this change pans out before you upgrade, though.

Apple, labels both win with DRM-free iTunes, tiered pricing. Apple has apparently crafted a compromise with the major record labels, dropping DRM and introducing tiered pricing.

First impressions of unibody 17" MacBook Pro. The Ars Macworld team had the chance to check out Apple's new unibody 17-inch MacBook Pro immediately after the keynote. Here are some photos from the Expo floor along with our initial impressions.

Whither iMac: unfulfilled keynote predictions and rumors. Although the Macworld Expo '09 keynote did bring us new iWork and iLife releases, as well as a 17" MacBook Pro, there are quite a few rumors and predictions that didn't come true.

EFF: DRM-free iTunes is good, but DRM from Apple ain't dead. The Electronic Frontier Foundation applauds Apple's move to eliminate DRM from some 10 million iTunes Store tracks within just a few months. However, the organization is reminding us that this is only one facet of DRM that Apple is involved with, and there's still a long way to go if the company wants to ditch copy protection altogether.

Time Machine Lessons: Deborking your Mac. When it comes to recovering your system or even migrating to a new machine, Time Machine can be your best friend. Here are a few lessons we learned recently.

Mac Box Set: the overlooked gem of the Keynote. The new Mac Box Set: a great deal out of an otherwise tame Macworld Expo keynote.

iLife Up to Date: when $3,000 isn't enough. Apple launches iLife Up to Date program for those of you who just can't wait for their new hardware.

Joe the Plumber: ‘I think media should be abolished’ from reporting on war.»

Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, aka “Joe the Plumber,” is currently in Israel covering the war for the conservative site PJTV.com. When asked what he has learned from his new experiences as a journalist, Wurzelbacher said that he believes the media shouldn’t be allowed to do “reporting” on wars:

I’ll be honest with you. I don’t think journalists should be anywhere allowed war. I mean, you guys report where our troops are at. You report what’s happening day to day. You make a big deal out of it. I think it’s asinine. You know, I liked back in World War I and World War II when you’d go to the theater and you’d see your troops on, you know, the screen and everyone would be real excited and happy for’em. Now everyone’s got an opinion and wants to downer–and down soldiers. You know, American soldiers or Israeli soldiers.

I think media should be abolished from, uh, you know, reporting. You know, war is hell. And if you’re gonna sit there and say, “Well look at this atrocity,” well you don’t know the whole story behind it half the time, so I think the media should have no business in it.

Nvidia shows off Guitar Hero III in 3D

Guitar Hero and Rock Band were two popular ways to show off whatever product or service you were hawking at CES, with every television or projector hooked up to one plastic guitar game or the other. Rhythm games were definitely this year's Wii; everyone wanted in on the action. Nvidia had a great gimmick to get people to its booth: show off Guitar Hero III in 3D.

The kids were having a blast playing at when we got there and checked it out, and the 3D effect was intelligently put together. The note charts appeared flat in front of the 3D background, so while you enjoyed the 3D graphics of the band and the crowd rocking out in the game, timing and perspective on the action game part of the screen wasn't affected.

Would this be something you'd want to set up at home? Well, you need the $200 3D glasses we discussed in an earlier post, which means it would only work on the PC version of Guitar Hero III. All in all, it makes a better demo than it does a product, but it did its job: the crowds around the booth were large, and the people had big smiles on their faces.

The SimCraft full-body moving gaming cage in action

SimCraft specializes in building dynamic, moving rigs designed to make games more immersible. We had a chance to check out its top-of-the-line model, the Apex SC 830, at CES this year and walked away impressed by the device. It may be just a fantasy for the average consumer, but that doesn't take away from the amazing experience the setup offers.
The SC 830 SimCraft in action.

The SC 830 features three degrees of freedom; 40 degrees of roll, 25 degrees of pitch, and 40 degrees of yaw. This translates into some pretty wild movement when the game really gets going. The company had the setup rigged up with three monitors and a copy of iRacing that fully supported the device's motion feedback. The video above shows just how much movement these rigs are capable of.

While the average consumer likely won't be shelling out the $40,000 for this particular unit, the SimCraft staff on site told us that the company is currently working on a collapsible model designed for a more widespread adoption with a vastly reduced price-point and a more household-friend construction. For the time being, though, we'll all just have to fantasize about having one of these at home.

CES panelists mull DTV readiness, possible delay

Politicos in Washington are clearly split over Barack Obama's call to postpone the Digital TV transition slated for February 17, and here at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas (read all our CES 2009 coverage), opinions are equally divided. Panelists at a CES session on the transition voiced some serious doubts about the country's readiness for the scheduled cessation of analog broadcast next month—but had equally strong reservations about the feasibility of putting it off.

Bigger problems than coupons

Transition worries have centered on the government coupon program, meant to subsidize digital conversion boxes for those with older television sets who rely on over-the-air (OtA) broadcast signals—an estimated 17 million households. With funds for the $40 coupons running behind demand, there's already a burgeoning waiting list—a problem Emily Neilson, president and general manager of local station KLAS-TV, attributes to a political refusal to means test the problem. Many, she says, have requested the maximum two coupons per household because they could, rather than because they needed it.

But that also means that the funding shortfall may be less severe than it appears. Only about half of the coupons issued have been redeemed to date, and it's not clear how many of those will ultimately be converted. Lynn Mento, senior vice president for membership at the American Association of Retired Persons, said that the over-50 crowd is—perhaps surprisingly—transitioning at rates comparable to the population at large. Among those who haven't yet transitioned, she says, about 20 percent say they won't, "either because it's not important to them or because they can't afford to because of the economy."

Then there are... other reasons for opting out. "We did a lot of man on the street issues in Wilmington," explained Alan Miles, VP for media and telecommunications research with Barclays Capital. In the South Carolina city that recently served as a canary in the analog-free coal mine, he says "a lot of people were vehemently angry about this big-brotherish program." Many the company spoke to apparently wondered: "What are they going to do with that box when it's in my house?"

Among those who can afford it—and don't fear the spies inside their TVs—some who've requested coupons may ultimately opt to subscribe to pay satellite or cable services in lieu of purchasing a broadcast converter. "If it's true that digital signal reception is an issue, and it certainly is, a lot of households would have no choice but to subscribe to cable, and that could mean an enormous land grab by cable," said Miles. Though subscribership rates aren't showing much evidence of such a shift yet, says Miles, any such trend may be "lost in the noise" of a turbulent economy.

But what are these "digital signal reception" issues of which you speak? Neilson said that her station's live crews, which rely on over-the-air to monitor their broadcasts, have experienced trouble receiving their own signal in rocky Nevada. That's because of the so-called "cliff problem": Interference may degrade an analog signal while leaving it viewable, if fuzzy. Digital signals, however, are more likely to drop off a "cliff," from clear picture to blue screen of death. Henry Hauser, a project manager with Panasonic, called the cliff effect a "big issue"—and worried consumers would blame their expensive new television sets for the problem.

The cliffs aren't restricted to Nevada, though—Hauser noted that the New York area was likely to face similar difficulties. Miles argues that Wilmington "should have been an easy market for the transition because it's very flat and very small," with a lower proportion of residents relying on OtA than in the country as a whole. Yet viewers phoned in with a flurry of complaints, and Miles projected that if those numbers were extrapolated nationwide, the first week of the transition could see millions of such calls. "FCC and other agencies have just denied that there's an antenna issue until very recently," said Miles, who claimed his company's interviews with Wilmingtonians suggested half of those transitioning to over-the-air digital would need "something more than just a box."

That notion sparked sharp disagreement from Alan Stillwell of the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology, who was watching from the audience. He blamed the troubles on a combination of consumer confusion about how to set up their antennas or boxes, and in particular on station WECT-TV, which "dropped their antenna height by half and moved closer to Wilmington." But Neilson, who is equally convinced that "it's not going to be as easy as plugging in a converter box and all is well," sprang to Miles' defense, saying complaint calls to her own station belied the FCC's confidence.

She also highlighted the problem of small, low power stations that will continue to broadcast on analog when their larger cousins have gone all-digital. Many of the converter boxes on the market aren't equipped with a receiver for analog passthrough, and many of the consumers trudging out to the store with their coupons in hand may not know to ask for it.

To delay or not to delay, that is the question

You might think these concerns put Neilson squarely in the camp of those pushing for a delay, but she argues that the difficulties associated with putting off the transition would be at least as great. She noted that especially for smaller stations, the costs of running two simultaneous transmitters—including monthly bills for power alone running into the thousands of dollars—were a significant burden. Moreover, broadcasters had adjusted their programming schedules to accommodate the transition, pushing back the traditional February ratings "sweeps" that drive advertising decisions. "Everything is going to be about May now," she said. "If it gets delayed, what is Nielsen going to do?" Whenever the deadline is set, she argued, there will be particular regional problems that can't be predicted in advance: Better to push ahead, leaving a single "nightlight" analog station in each area broadcasting transition information and emergency announcements.

Panasonic's Hauser agreed. "We've been regulated to be compliant, so we're ready," he said. "We feel it would be better just to end the confusion. People who are going to delay are going to delay until you turn it off and they don't get a picture."

Brian Dietz, vice president for the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, expressed diplomatic indifference: "If it's February 17th, we're fine with that. If they want to push it back, we're fine with that too. We'll continue to support it whenever the date is." He did note, however, that NCTA has been approached by the incoming Obama administration to help assemble a national call center to deal with any transitional glitches.

It was the AARP's Mento who voiced the clearest support for a delay, noting that her organization has seen an uptick in calls from members as February draws near. "We think it would be good to have the time to create a contingency plan," she said, "because I don't think anyone believes we have a truly effective contingency plan for the transition date." She also saw some value in having the transition occur in the spring or summer, given the potential antenna issues: "We don't like our members up on roofs in wintry months."

India installs new Satyam board, senior execs in jail

The Indian government installed a new board at Satyam Computer Services Ltd on Sunday as authorities stepped up efforts to limit the damage from a fraud that has become India's biggest corporate scandal.

The three-member board will meet at Satyam headquarters in the southern city of Hyderabad at about 0400 GMT on Monday to lay out a roadmap for restoring confidence of clients and staff following revelations of a massive accounting fraud.

"There are a number of priorities we have to work on," said Housing Development Finance Corp Chairman Deepak Parekh, who was earlier named one of three members on the board.

"Restoring confidence is the main job, the first job we have, apart from restating the accounts."

The other members are Kiran Karnik, former president of the National Association of Software and Service Companies, a technology lobbying group, and C. Achutan, a former official of the regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

The chairman of the board will be selected by its three members, Corporate Affairs Minister Prem Chand Gupta said.

"These three members will chart the future course of action for the time being," Gupta told a news conference in New Delhi.

New York-listed Satyam welcomed the reconstitution of the board, saying it would ensure the outsourcer's continued operations, help maintain customer confidence and staff morale, and restore investor trust.

"This is a vital stabilising development for Satyam, and it marks the beginning of a new chapter in the company's history," a company spokeswoman said. "It is the best news we've received in the past four weeks."

The accounting fraud at Satyam was revealed by its chairman and founder Ramalinga Raju last Wednesday. Its stock has since been battered and its valuation plunged to $330 million at Friday's market close, down from more than $7 billion six months ago.

The scandal has cast a cloud over foreign investment in Asia's third-largest economy and over its once-booming outsourcing sector, which posted stunning sales growth for years and lavished investors with handsome returns.

BACK ON THE RAILS

Stand-in Chief Executive Ram Mynampati said on Thursday the scandal had pushed Satyam, which specialises in business software and back-office services, into a crisis of unimaginable proportions and that liquidity was not very encouraging.

"The aim of the board will be to ensure continuity of business and confidence of clients as clients always gets concerned with such incidents," Karnik told television channel NDTV Profit. "Satyam will be back on the rails."

Analysts said the quick move to name new board members was a step in the right direction.

"I think it's a first good move towards restoring client confidence," said Sudin Apte, country head of market research firm Forrester. "But we still have a long way to go."

Meanwhile, police stepped up their investigation, having charged founder chairman Raju and his brother Rama Raju with criminal conspiracy and forgery on Friday after Ramalinga Raju said profits had been falsified for years and quit.

In a five-page letter sent to stock exchange authorities last week, Raju admitted about $1 billion, or 94 percent of the cash and bank balances on Satyam's books at end-September, did not exist.

The brothers are being held in jail, along with Satyam Chief Financial Officer Vadlamani Srinivas, after they were taken into judicial custody until Jan. 23.

Police raided the residences of the arrested executives in Hyderabad on Sunday as part of the investigation, V.S.K. Kaumudi, Inspector General of Police, told Reuters.

Minister Gupta said the government would soon make a decision on appointing additional board members.

Several securities fraud class-action lawsuits have been filed in the United States on behalf of investors who bought Satyam American Depository Receipts (ADRs) in the last five years.

(For full Satyam coverage, click [ID:nBOM394323] ) (Writing by Sumeet Chatterjee; Additional reporting by Surojit Gupta, Bappa Majumdar and Narayanan Somasundaram; Editing by Michael Roddy)

British prince apologizes for racist remarks

Politicians and religious groups on Sunday condemned Prince Harry of Britain for calling a Pakistani Army soldier a "Paki" in video footage published by a newspaper on its Web site.

The 24-year-old prince was forced to apologize, saying there was no racist malice intended by the comments made in a 2006 video which was procured by The News of the World.

The leader of the opposition Conservative Party, David Cameron, said the comments were a "completely unacceptable thing to say and it is right that he has apologized."

Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats, echoed Cameron's remarks, but said a line should be drawn under the incident.

"He shouldn't have used those words, it will have caused considerable offence and has obviously caused him a considerable amount of embarrassment," Clegg told Sky television.

The word "Paki" is derogatory slang for an immigrant or descendant of an immigrant from Pakistan.

The prime minister's office declined to comment, but Innovation Secretary John Denham told Sky television that such language was no longer acceptable.

"This sort of language can be seen as offensive, is offensive, is gradually going out of use in our society, and he's apologized for it," he said.

The recording was made a year after Harry was criticized for wearing a Nazi uniform to a costume party, a gaffe that sparked an international outcry.

In some of the footage, Harry - grandson of Queen Elizabeth II and third in line to the British throne - is behind the camera and can he heard making a mock commentary.

"Anyone else here. Ah, our little Paki friend, Ahmed," Harry says as he zooms onto the face of an Asian officer cadet while waiting at an airport to fly to Cyprus.

Harry was also shown telling another officer cadet wearing a camouflage veil during night training in Cyprus, "You look like a raghead" - an offensive term for an Arab.

Muhammad Shafiq, director of the Ramadhan Foundation, said the prince's remarks were racist.

"I am deeply shocked and saddened at Prince Harry's racism which upsets and offends many British Asians," he said. "The use of this sort of racism has no justification and I am saddened by those that are advocating using this term is not racist."

But a spokesman for Harry said the prince understood how offensive his language toward his comrade was.

"However, on this occasion three years ago, Prince Harry used the term without any malice and as a nickname about a highly popular member of his platoon," the spokesman said.

The Muslim Council of Britain, an umbrella group for British Muslim organizations, said Harry's language was unacceptable and had harmed the image of the army, which has been trying to recruit more widely from minorities.

But a council spokesman, Inayat Bunglawala, said that Harry had done the right thing by apologizing.

"In the big scheme of things, there are more important issues that we should be discussing, not least the carnage in Gaza," he said.

Obama raises estimate on jobs in his economic plan

One day after the U.S. unemployment rate was reported to be at a 16-year high, the president-elect, Barack Obama, again raised the estimate of how many jobs would result from his economic recovery plan, saying it would create or save three million to four million, nearly 90 percent of them in the private sector.

In his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday, Obama sought to inject a positive note into the economic outlook by releasing a report from his advisers that estimated the number of jobs that could be created with his plan by the end of 2010.

The report noted, however, that at least five million jobs, and probably many more, were expected to have been lost during the downturn. So even if the most optimistic projections bear out, unemployment in December 2010 will still be higher than it was in December 2007.

Obama's address was his latest effort to sell a $775 billion proposal to Congress, whose leaders have pledged to adopt a bill by mid-February, and to Americans stung by the recession.

"The jobs we create will be in businesses large and small across a wide range of industries," Obama said. "And they'll be the kind of jobs that don't just put people to work in the short term, but position our economy to lead the world in the long term."

Without an economic recovery plan, the report warned, the unemployment rate could hit 9 percent, up from 7.2 percent now. If the plan is adopted, unemployment is still expected to rise but then to fall late this year.

The report, and Obama's speech, also seemed intended to counter criticism, particularly from some Republicans, that his plan would create bureaucracies rather than put people to work.

The 14-page report, prepared by Christina Romer, who is Obama's choice to lead his Council of Economic Advisers, and Jared Bernstein, an economic adviser to the vice president-elect, Joseph Biden Jr., provides specific examples for the first time of the types of jobs that could be created, including a detailed industry-by-industry breakdown.

Obama said his plan could create about 500,000 jobs by investing in clean energy, doubling the production of alternative energy over three years and improving the energy efficiency of government buildings and homes.

The president-elect said building solar panels and wind turbines and developing fuel-efficient cars would create "made-in-America jobs" that could not be outsourced.

The report also suggested that nearly 400,000 jobs could be created by building and repairing roads, schools and bridges. More than 200,000 jobs could be created in health care, particularly by creating a nationwide system of computerized medical records.

Some conservatives argue that jobs that exist only as a result of temporary government spending should not be viewed as providing real, long-term growth. On Capitol Hill, lawmakers are engaged in vigorous debate over how best to stimulate the economy and to create jobs. Some Democrats say Obama's plan would be more effective if it were to focus fewer dollars on tax cuts and more on government spending, especially in the energy sector.

Some top Republicans, meanwhile, are pushing for broader tax cuts. "We want to make sure it's not just a trillion-dollar spending bill," said the Republican leader, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, "but something that actually can reach the goal that he has suggested."

Obama transition officials have said that the president-elect's proposed middle-class tax cut - called "Making Work Pay," which would provide $500 for individuals and $1,000 for couples by reducing payroll tax withholdings - is "nonnegotiable." McConnell is pushing an alternative that would cut the tax rate for most middle-income workers, to 15 percent from 25 percent.

In the campaign, Obama vowed to create one million jobs, and after winning election he put forth a plan to create as many as three million. The report now puts the figure at about 3.7 million, the midpoint of an estimated range of 3.3 million to 4.1 million jobs by the end of next year.

Even now, though, it is merely an estimate based on a model that assumes a million jobs for stimulus spending equal to 1 percent of economic output.

In the report, Obama seems to address the criticism from some Democrats that his economic stimulus plan favors tax cuts over creating new jobs. The report concedes that tax cuts and giving aid to states "are likely to create fewer jobs" but says the tax cuts are needed to jump-start the economy quickly.

"There is a limit," the report said, "on how much government investment can be carried out efficiently in a short time frame."

EU monitors arrive to get Russian gas flowing again

European Union monitors arrived at a Russian gas export pipeline on Sunday, in what could be the first step towards ending a supply cut-off that has plunged parts of Europe into a mid-winter energy crisis.

But it was unlikely the gas would reach Europe earlier than Tuesday, nearly two weeks after a gas price row broke out between Moscow and Kiev, choking supplies and raising new questions about the European Union's reliance on Russian energy.

Under an agreement brokered by the EU, Moscow and Kiev promised to restore gas flows once the monitors are in place at strategic locations along the pipeline routes from Russia, through Ukraine, to Europe.

A hitch emerged though when Russia said it had not received an official copy of the monitoring agreement signed overnight by Ukraine and the EU's Czech presidency.

The gas crisis is the latest row between the two former Soviet republics which have sparred over Ukraine's ambition to join the NATO military alliance and Russia's war in Georgia.

Ukraine accuses Russia of using its energy muscle to punish its ex-Soviet neighbours for their ambition to join the NATO alliance. Moscow says the dispute was caused by Kiev's refusal to pay a fair price for the gas it uses.

Russian President Medvedev said on Sunday Russia will only re-start gas flows to Europe via Ukraine once it has the copy of the deal and all monitors are in place.

"If those conditions are met, the resumption of transit will start," Medvedev said in a televised meeting with Igor Sechin, the deputy prime minister in charge of energy.

"The sooner those conditions are met, the easier it will be to get out of this situation which Ukraine ... created for European customers."

Once the gas taps are re-opened it is likely to be a further 36 hours before fuel reaches customers in Europe because of the time it takes for pressure to build up in the pipeline network.

The presence of monitors along the pipeline route is aimed at reassuring Moscow that Ukraine is not siphoning off gas intended for customers in Europe.

A Reuters photographer at Russia's Sudzha compressor station, near the border with Ukraine, said the monitoring team had arrived. The EU says it plans to deploy a total of five monitoring teams to sites in Russia and Ukraine.

EUROPEAN DEPENDENCY

Europe receives 80 percent of its Russian gas -- or a fifth of its total needs -- from pipelines that run via Ukraine.

European countries have questioned whether Russia and Ukraine are reliable energy partners after another pricing row in early 2006 led to short-term gas disruptions. Gazprom also halved supplies last year due to non-payment.

This time, however, western countries have been slow to support Ukraine's argument that Russia is acting as a bully. Some EU diplomats have said Kiev should share the blame for the supply disruption.

Even once gas starts flowing again to Europe, Ukraine will still be without Russian gas for its own use, though it says it has large stockpiles of fuel. The latest talks on a new contract ended without result on Saturday.

The disruptions began on New Year's Day when Gazprom cut off all supplies for Ukraine's own use after failing to reach agreement on a new gas supply contract.

Since then, a total of 18 countries have suffered problems with their gas supplies..

Eastern and central Europe have borne the brunt of the supply disruptions, with Bulgaria shutting schools because it could not heat them and Slovakia saying it would re-start a nuclear reactor which it shut down last year.

In Sofia, residents expressed anger.

"Half of Europe has become a hostage of the squabbling between Russia and Ukraine. This is pure blackmail, totally unacceptable and we should demand financial compensations," said Krasimira Dimitrova, 56.

Energy companies in the Balkans, where overnight temperatures reached as low as -17 degrees Celsius below zero, have switched to alternative fuels and other suppliers to restore heating to hundreds of thousands of homes.

Russia says it has been subsidising fuel supplies to Ukraine for years and now wants it to pay $450 per 1,000 cubic metres of gas. That is roughly in line with the price EU customers pay but a huge increase on the $179.5 Kiev paid last year.

Who will save Israel from itself

One by one the justifications given by Israel for its latest war in Gaza are unravelling.

The argument that this is a purely defensive war, launched only after Hamas broke a six-month ceasefire has been challenged, not just by observers in the know such as Jimmy Carter, the former US president who helped facilitate the truce, but by centre-right Israeli intelligence think tanks.

The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, whose December 31 report titled "Six Months of the Lull Arrangement Intelligence Report," confirmed that the June 19 truce was only "sporadically violated, and then not by Hamas but instead by ... "rogue terrorist organisations".

Instead, "the escalation and erosion of the lull arrangement" occurred after Israel killed six Hamas members on November 4 without provocation and then placed the entire Strip under an even more intensive siege the next day.

The claim that Hamas will never accept the existence of Israel has proved equally misinformed, as Hamas leaders explicitly announce their intention to do just that in the pages of the Los Angeles Times or to any international leader or journalist who will meet with them.

With each new family, 10, 20 and 30 strong, buried under the rubble of a building in Gaza, the claim that the Israeli forces have gone out of their way to diminish civilian casualties - long a centre-piece of Israel's image as an enlightened and moral democracy - is falling apart.

Anyone with an internet connection can Google "Gaza humanitarian catastrophe" and find the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Territories and read the thousands of pages of evidence documenting the reality of the current fighting, and the long term siege on Gaza that preceded it.

The Red Cross, normally scrupulous in its unwillingness to single out parties to a conflict for criticism, sharply criticised Israel for preventing medical personnel from reaching wounded Palestinians, some of whom remained trapped for days, slowly starving and dying in the Gazan rubble amidst their dead relatives.

Meanwhile, the United Nations has flatly denied Israeli claims that Palestinian fighters were using the UNRWA school compound bombed on January 6, in which 40 civilians were killed, to launch attacks, and has challenged Israel to prove otherwise.

War crimes admission

Additionally, numerous flippant remarks by senior Israeli politicians and generals, including Tzipi Livni, the foreign minister, refusing to make a distinction between civilian people and institutions and fighters - "Hamas doesn't ... and neither should we" is how Livni puts it - are rightly being seen as admissions of war crimes.

Indeed, in reviewing statements by Israeli military planners leading up to the invasion, it is clear that there was a well thought out decision to go after Gaza's civilian infrastructure - and with it, civilians.

The following quote from an interview with Major-General Gadi Eisenkot that appeared in the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth in October, is telling:

"We will wield disproportionate power against every village from which shots are fired on Israel, and cause immense damage and destruction. From our perspective these [the villages] are military bases," he said.

"This isn't a suggestion. This is a plan that has already been authorised."

Causing "immense damage and destruction" and considering entire villages "military bases" is absolutely prohibited under international law.

Eisenkot's description of this planning in light of what is now unfolding in Gaza is a clear admission of conspiracy and intent to commit war crimes, and when taken with the comments above, and numerous others, renders any argument by Israel that it has tried to protect civilians and is not engaging in disproportionate force unbelievable.

International laws violated

On the ground, the evidence mounts ever higher that Israel is systematically violating a host of international laws, including but not limited to Article 56 of the IV Hague Convention of 1907, the First Additional Protocol of the Geneva Convention, the Fourth Geneva Convention (more specifically known as the "Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949", the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the principles of Customary International Humanitarian Law.

None of this excuses or legitimises the firing of rockets or mortars by any Palestinian group at Israeli civilians and non-military targets.

As Richard Falk, the UN special rapporteur, declared in his most recent statement on Gaza: "It should be pointed out unambiguously that there is no legal (or moral) justification for firing rockets at civilian targets, and that such behavior is a violation of IHR, associated with the right to life, as well as constitutes a war crime."

By the same logic, however, Israel does not have the right to use such attacks as an excuse to launch an all-out assault on the entire population of Gaza.

In this context, even Israel's suffering from the constant barrage of rockets is hard to pay due attention to when the numbers of dead and wounded on each side are counted. Any sense of proportion is impossible to sustain with such a calculus.

'Rogue' state

Israeli commentators and scholars, self-described "loyal" Zionists who served proudly in the army in wars past, are now publicly describing their country, in the words of Oxford University professor Avi Shlaim, as a "rogue" and gangster" state led by "completely unscrupulous leaders".

Gazans inspect the damage after an air strike hit a mosque [GALLO/GETTY]

Neve Gordon, a politics professor at Ben Gurion University, has declared that Israel's actions in Gaza are like "raising animals for slaughter on a farm" and represent a "bizarre new moral element" in warfare.

"The moral voice of restraint has been left behind ... Everything is permitted" against Palestinians, writes a disgusted Haaretz columnist, Gideon Levy.

Fellow Haaretz columnist and daughter of Holocaust survivors, Amira Haas writes of her late parents disgust at how Israeli leaders justified Israel's wars with a "language laundromat" aimed at redefining reality and Israel's moral compass. "Lucky my parents aren't alive to see this," she exclaimed.

Around the world people are beginning to compare Israel's attack on Gaza, which after the 2005 withdrawal of Israeli forces and settlers was turned literally into the world's largest prison, to the Jewish uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto.

Extremist Muslims are using internet forums to collect names and addresses of prominent European Jews with the goal, it seems clear, of assassinating them in retaliation for Israel's actions in Gaza.

Al-Qaeda is attempting to exploit this crisis to gain a foothold in Gaza and Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and Syria, as well as through attacking Jewish communities globally.

Iran's defiance of both Israel and its main sponsor, the US, is winning it increasing sympathy with each passing day.

Democratic values eroded

Inside Israel, the violence will continue to erode both democratic values in the Jewish community, and any acceptance of the Jewish state's legitimacy in the eyes of its Palestinian citizens.

And yet in the US - at least in Washington and in the offices of the mainstream Jewish organisations - the chorus of support for Israel's war on Gaza continues to sing in tight harmony with official Israeli policy, seemingly deaf to the fact that they have become so out of tune with the reality exploding around them.

At my university, UCI, where last summer Jewish and Muslim students organised a trip together through the occupied territories and Israel so they could see with their own eyes the realities there, old battle lines are being redrawn.

The Anteaters for Israel, the college pro-Israel group at the University of California, Irvine, sent out an urgent email to the community explaining that, "Over the past week, increasing amounts of evidence lead us to believe that Hamas is largely responsible for any alleged humanitarian crisis in Gaza".

I have no idea who the "us" is that is referred to in the appeal, although I am sure that the membership of that group is shrinking.

Indeed, one of the sad facts of this latest tragedy is that with each claim publicly refuted by facts on the ground, more and more Americans, including Jews, are refusing to trust the assertions of Israeli and American Jewish leaders.

Trap

Even worse, in the Arab/Muslim world, the horrific images pouring out of Gaza daily are allowing preachers and politicians to deploy well-worn yet still dangerous and inciteful stereotypes against Jews as they rally the masses against Israel - and through it - their own governments.

What is most frightening is that the most important of Israel's so-called friends, the US political establishment and the mainstream Jewish leadership, seem clueless to the devastating trap that Israel has led itself into - in good measure with their indulgence and even help.

It is one that threatens the country's existence far more than any Qassam rockets, with their 0.4 per cent kill rate; even more than the disastrous 2006 invasion of southern Lebanon, which by weakening Israel's deterrence capability in some measure made this war inevitable.

First, it is clear that Israel cannot destroy Hamas, it cannot stop the rockets unless it agrees to a truce that will go far to meeting the primary demand of Hamas - an end to the siege.

Merely by surviving (and it surely will survive) Hamas, like Hezbollah in 2006, will have won.

Support for the war remains high in Israel[GALLO/GETTY]

Israel is succeeding in doing little more than creating another generation of Palestinians with hearts filled with rage and a need for revenge.

Second, Israel's main patron, the US, along with the conservative Arab autocracies and monarchies that are its only allies left in the Muslim world, are losing whatever crumbs of legitimacy they still had with their young and angry populations.

The weaker the US and its axis becomes in the Middle East, the more precarious becomes Israel's long-term security. Indeed, any chance that the US could convince the Muslim world to pressure Iran to give up its quest for nuclear weapons has been buried in Gaza.

Third, as Israel brutalises Palestinians, it brutalises its own people. You cannot occupy another people and engage in violence against them at this scale without doing even greater damage to your soul.

The high incidence of violent crimes committed by veterans returning from combat duty in Iraq is but one example of how the violence of occupation and war eat away at people's moral centre.

While in the US only a small fraction of the population participates in war; in Israel, most able-bodied men end up participating.

The effects of the latest violence perpetrated against Palestinians upon the collective Israeli soul is incalculable; the notion that it can survive as an "ethnocracy" - favouring one ethnic group, Jews, yet by and large democratic - is becoming a fiction.

Violence-as-power

Who will save Israel from herself?

Israelis are clearly incapable. Their addiction as a society to the illusion of violence-as-power has reached the level of collective mental illness.

As Haaretz reporter Yossi Melman described it on January 10, "Israel has created an image of itself of a madman that has lost it".

Not Palestinians, too many of whom have fallen prey to the same condition.

Not the Middle East Quartet, the European Union, the United Nations, or the Arab League, all of whom are utterly powerless to influence Israeli policy.

Not the organised Jewish leadership in the US and Europe, who are even more blind to what is happening than most Israelis, who at least allow internal debate about the wisdom of their government's policies.

Not the growing progressive Jewish community, which will need years to achieve enough social and political power to challenge the status quo.

And not senior American politicians and policy-makers who are either unwilling to risk alienating American Jewish voters, or have been so brainwashed by the constant barrage of propaganda put out by the "Israel Lobby" that they are incapable of reaching an independent judgment about the conflict.

During the US presidential race, Barack Obama was ridiculed for being a messiah-like figure. The idea does not sound so funny now. It is hard to imagine anyone less saving Israel, the Palestinians, and the world from another four years of mindless violence.

Mark LeVine is a professor of Middle East history at the University of California, Irvine, and is the author of Heavy Metal Islam: Rock, Resistance, and the Struggle for the Soul of Islam and the soon to be published An Impossible Peace: Israel/Palestine Since 1989.

Slumdog Millionaire has an Indian co-director

Not many know "Slumdog Millionaire" is directed by not Danny Boyle alone. Loveleen Tandon is the film's co-director and she says she isn't perturbed by Boyle stealing all the limelight internationally.

"I don't mind at all. I've been travelling non-stop with the film. I've returned home in the last week of December."

Delhi-based casting director Tandon told IANS: "I started off as the casting director. But just before shooting, Danny asked me to hop on board as co-director. I'm there in the credits. But people here don't know about that."

She took on the challenge of co-directing the film because she got to cast three different sets of child actors from three eras to which the film's protagonists belong.

"I had never seen a screenplay where three sets of actors got equal screen time to play the same character. I had to match the three sets of actors in every possible way. Danny refused to shoot until we found all the nine actors.

"I couldn't sleep until I found the right kids. I started casting in April 2007. Danny kept coming down to Mumbai to check out the actors. I got the youngest version of the child actors, who finally grow up to be Salim and Latika, straight from the slums."

Tandon, who has earlier served as casting director for films by Mira Nair and Steven Spielberg, had a lot of arguments over the socio-cultural nuances of Boyle's cinema.

"Specially the fact that the kids had to speak in English. How could kids from Mumbai slums speak in English? It would've become stagey. I suggested Danny turn the kids' dialogues in Hindi. I prepared a scratch tape for Danny with real slum kids."

Tandon wrote about 30 percent of the film in Hindi. "Danny wanted to be culturally correct. He offered me the part of the co-director. I was blown away. I was never meant to be part of the shooting. I didn't participate in the shooting of the scenes at the police station and the sets of KBC (Kaun Banega Crorepati).

"I was out directing the second unit. On my own I shot all the scenes showing people shooting KBC all over the country. Also the girl protagonist Latika had very sensitive sexually-suggestive scenes at age 13."

Tandon was summoned to be part of those scenes. " 'Slumdog Millionaire' is a very masculine film. Being part of the directorial team as co-director for 'Slumdog Millionaire' was fine. But now I want to direct my own film. I'm telling you this because I'm getting offers from abroad to be co-director.

"I never intended to be a casting director. Mira Nair turned me into one for 'Monsoon Wedding'. People liked my work abroad and I kept getting offers from abroad. But my first film as a director would be in Hindi. That's the language I think in. There's a subject I've been harbouring for a year and I'll probably write it myself."

Tandon says "Slumdog Millionaire" is a homage to the Hindi commercial cinema. "The writer Simon Beaufoy studied Salim-Javed's kind of cinema minutely."

Another sleepless night for Aamir

The actor will have to give up a good night’s sleep for the second success party of the film to be held tonight. Aamir, who is shooting with Kareena Kapoor in Bangalore for 3 Idiots, will be flying to Mumbai this evening after the film’s pack-up to attend the party which is expected to go on till early morning; he will then catch the first flight back to Bangalore and report to the sets for the next day’s shoot. Second success parties are unheard of, but so are films breaking box office records and touching Rs 200 crore in three weeks. Along with Aamir, many competitors too must be having sleepless nights!

Cops will pay you a visit to secure WiFi

Five months ago, members of the Indian Mujahideen had allegedly hacked into US national and Sanpada-resident Kenneth Haywood's computer to sent terror mail prior to the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts. Terrorists used the unsecured WiFi network of Chembur-based Kamran Powers Control Pvt Ltd to send emails after the September 13 blasts in New Delhi last year. An email sent to a media house by people claiming to be members of the Indian Mujahideen was traced to the WiFi network of Matunga's Khalsa College of Arts, Science and Commerce. The email threatened to eliminate police officers probing blast cases across the country.

"It's an awareness campaign. In the first phase, we will educate users about securing their WifI networks," said Sanjay Mohite, deputy commissioner of police. "Our officers will visit homes, schools, colleges as well as corporate houses,'' he said.

The police will start their drive at Bandra-Kurla Complex which houses many corporate offices. Simultaneously, they will begin their drive for residential areas at Malabar Hill. "Unprotected IP addresses can be misused for cyber crimes,'' Mohite, who has been in-charge of the Cyber Crime Investigation Cell for two years, said.

On Friday, additional commissioner of police, K Venkatesham, organised a seminar on WiFi. Cyber expert Vijay Mukhi briefed 80 police personnel on securing an unprotected network. "We may issue notices under the Criminal Procedure Code to those who do not secure their WiFi network in the future," said a senior officer.

Palm investors celebrating too soon?

Palm Inc (PALM.O) stole the limelight at the Consumer Electronics Show by unveiling a new touch-screen phone and mobile operating system that doubled its share price overnight.

But investors may be celebrating too soon.

Analysts gave a thumbs-up to the new Palm Pre smartphone and webOS operating system, but said it was too early to conclude that the long-awaited new products can rescue Palm, which has lost both market share and cachet to Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) iPhone and Research In Motion's (RIM.TO) BlackBerry.

They said important questions remain unanswered, including price, how quickly Palm can bring the device to market, and how long the phone would be exclusive to subscribers of Sprint Nextel Corp (S.N), the weakest of the top three U.S. mobile services.

"Palm remains a 'show-me' story in our view, with its turnaround dependent upon execution and financial performance beyond webOS and Pre's initial debut," said Mike Abramsky, RBC analyst who reiterated his "sector perform."

At 4.8 ounces, the Pre is light in the hand and smooth to the touch, with a slight curvature to its frame once its slide-out keyboard is deployed. Its black plastic case has only one button, like the iPhone, beneath a big, 3.1-inch touch screen.

The Pre's sleek back has a lens for its 3-megapixel camera, and a hidden tab on the side reveals a USB slot for music, charging and other data. Users can access a full keyboard by gently sliding up the phone's face.

The phone's unveiling drew cheers from a packed auditorium in Las Vegas [ID:nN08111363], but the device was not on the CES exhibit floor as Palm is still putting finishing touches on the phone.

Palm Chief Executive Ed Colligan and Jon Rubenstein, a former Apple executive who helped create the iPod, described how users will be able to keep multiple applications open, such as email, maps, photos, and move between them. Pre perceives applications as "activity cards" that users can flip through on the touch screen, Palm said.

Rubenstein was brought to Palm by private equity firm Elevation Partners, which bought a 25 percent stake in the company for $325 million in June 2007. The phone was developed under his watch, and analysts said it looked strong enough to challenge the iPhone, BlackBerry and handsets using Google Inc's (GOOG.O) Android operating system.

Israeli forces edge into Gaza city,Hamas defiant

Israeli forces edged into the Gaza Strip's most populous area on Sunday, killing at least 27 Palestinians in an offensive stepped up in defiance of international calls for a ceasefire.

Medical officials said about half of the Palestinian dead in the latest fighting in the Hamas-ruled territory were civilians.

"Israel is getting close to achieving the goals it set for itself," Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told his cabinet in Jerusalem, giving no timeframe for an end to the 16-day-long war.

"But patience, determination and effort are still needed to realise these goals in a manner that will change the security situation in the south," Olmert said, referring to Hamas rocket attacks that continued to hit Israeli towns.

Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal said his ruling Islamist group would not consider a ceasefire until Israel ended its air, sea and ground assault and lifted a Gaza blockade. A Hamas delegation held talks in Cairo on an Egyptian truce plan.

Israel, describing as unworkable a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire, wants a halt to rocket attacks and arrangements to ensure that Hamas cannot rearm through tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border.

An Israeli defence official was to visit Egypt on Monday to press for tougher anti-smuggling measures. German diplomatic sources said Berlin offered to send specialists next week to Egypt to discuss ways to improve border security and Cairo had responded positively.

Backed by helicopter gunships, Israeli troops and tanks pushed into eastern and southern parts of the city of Gaza, confronting Hamas militants who fired anti-armour missiles and mortar bombs.

The Palestinian death toll since Israel's offensive began on Dec. 27 stands at 869, many of them civilians, Gaza medical officials said. Thirteen Israelis -- three civilians hit by rocket fire and 10 soldiers -- have been killed, official Israeli figures showed.

In Washington, U.S. President-elect Barack Obama said in broadcast remarks he would begin the search for Middle East peace immediately on becoming president and the Gaza conflict only underscored his determination to become involved early.

New street fighting killed 10 gunmen, Palestinian medical workers said. Another three fighters and a member of the Hamas police force were killed by Israeli air strikes.

Medical officials said 13 civilians, including four members of a family, were killed by Israeli forces and that Israeli shelling of two villages south of the city of Gaza had set 15 houses on fire.

Israel's military said it attacked a mosque used to store weapons, 10 squads of gunmen, three rocket-launching sites and the house of a Hamas commander.

In Jerusalem, Cabinet Secretary Oved Yehezkel said Hamas leaders were hiding in Gaza's foreign missions, hospitals and bunkers to elude Israeli forces. He did not name the missions.

Pakistan extends LeT chief Hafiz Saeed's house arrest.....

Pakistan has extended by two months the house arrest of Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, the founder chief of banned terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) which is blamed by India for the Mumbai terror attacks.

Saeed was detained in December after the United Nations declared Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), a frontal organisation of the LeT, as a terrorist group.

The extension of the original one-month detention was ordered by the provincial government in Punjab province where JuD was headquartered, Daily Times reported Sunday.

'His house has been declared a sub-jail where he will spend the rest of the detention period,' a provincial official said, adding the detention was extended on orders from the federal government.

After UN sanctions were imposed, the authorities arrested some 40 members of the group and closed dozens of its offices and relief units in the country, the newspaper reported.

India has handed over a dossier to Pakistan linking LeT and some Pakistani nationals to the Mumbai carnage that left over 170 people dead Nov 26-29.

Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said that Islamabad had given India feedback on New Delhi's evidence about the Mumbai attacks. India says it is yet to receive the response.

'Ghajini' outstrips DDLJ to become biggest domestic earner

Aamir Khan starrer 'Ghajini', which released to packed houses Dec 25, is on its way to create history by taking over the mantle of the biggest domestic earner so far, leaving behind 'Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge'.

'Ghajini', a romantic action thriller that explores the life of a rich businessman who suffers from short-term memory loss following a violent incident, has earned Rs.2 billion ($41 million) in less than two weeks from its release.

The film has grossed Rs.1.62 billion in domestic markets and Rs.390 million have come from overseas markets till end of second week. The film is still running to packed houses and may cross more milestones.

'Ghajini', a film that introduced Asin to Hindi cinema opposite superstar Aamir, was released with 1,200 prints in the domestic market and in a lot of small towns where films are not often released in the first week.

In the overseas market, it is now second only to Karan Johar's hit film 'Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham' which collected Rs.440 million.

Windows 7 beta, new deals

Not only is he taking over Consumer Electronics Show keynote duties from Bill Gates, he is also aiming to convince the tech world that Microsoft is serious about defending its turf on the PC as well as making headway on the Web, television and phone. Oh yeah, and then there's that whole economy-melting-down thing.
Ballmer hasn't arrived in Sin City empty handed, however. In perhaps the biggest announcement of the night, he will announce Microsoft is ready with a beta version of Windows 7 and he will show off some of its key consumer features.
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Microsoft will also announce new deals for Windows Live that will see Microsoft's search engine become the default on PCs from Dell as well as touting a deal with Verizon Wireless that leaked earlier in the day. The company is also counting on two Halo game releases this year to help keep the Xbox 360 going in the right direction.
But Microsoft faces considerable competition in each of the areas Ballmer is discussing. On the PC front, a resurgent Apple has increased its share. In search, Google continues to dominate. In the phone market, Apple's iPhone has grabbed much of the spotlight, not to mention significant market share. Google also has joined the fray, while longtime competitors such as Research in Motion and Palm are trying to maintain their slices of the pie as well.

Tel Aviv shares dip as Lebanon rockets hit Israel

Israeli share prices fell more than 2 percent on Thursday, weighed down by losses on Wall Street and a flare-up in fighting on the Israel-Lebanon border.
At 1046 GMT, the blue-chip Tel Aviv 25 index .TA25 was down 2.5 percent while the broader TA-100 .TA100 was 2.6 precent lower in low volumes.
Share indexes in New York dropped about 3 percent on Wednesday but traders said only part of the Israeli market's decline was a reaction to the Wall Street declines since European shares were down about 1 percent.
Earlier on Thursday, rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel, prompting Israeli artillery fire.
"Half (of the losses) is because of Wall Street and half is because of the conflict," said Avi Weinreb, a trader at the Clal Finance brokerage in Tel Aviv.
Tel Aviv stocks had been performing well during nearly two weeks of fighting with Hamas militants in Gaza, gaining about 10 percent.
Investors were confident the Israel-Hamas conflict would be short due to international pressure to end the fighting.
But it could hurt the market if the conflict spread to Lebanon, traders said.
Still, the market views the rockets from Lebanon as an isolated incident and as a result indexes have been stable since the initial drop.

Deadly Israeli attacks pound Gaza

Thousands of Palestinians have fled their homes in the southern Gaza Strip as Israeli forces bombarded Rafah after dropping leaflets to warn local residents about an impending blitz.Witnesses said that homes, suspected smuggling tunnels and a mosque were hit in the area along the Egyptian border early on Thursday.
The leaflets warned that that the Israeli military "will bomb the area due to its use by terrorists to [dig] tunnels and to stock up" on weapons.Hundreds of tunnels are believed to cross under the Egyptian border around Rafah allowing Palestinians to smuggle in basic supplies, in short supply due to the Israeli blockade, and weapons.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said the military dropped the flyers "as in the past to avoid civilian casualties".At least 700 Palestinians, including 219 children, have died in Gaza since Israel began its assault on December 27. More than 3,080 people have also been wounded.Eight Israeli soldiers and three civilians have died in the same period.