Mumbai Bomb Blast

At least 184 people were killed and around 714 injured, many seriously, as seven powerful blasts ripped through packed train cars and on stations during rush hour here Tuesday evening in the worst terror attack in India in over a decade.

Dazed survivors, blood on their faces, stared blankly at the explosion sites, some trying desperately to speak to their families on mobile telephones held by young men who came rushing from neighbourhood buildings. All this while it kept raining all over the city, making the situation much more grim and difficult.

Terror and mayhem struck Mumbai and Srinagar, two cities 1600 km apart in the west and north of India, killing at least 143 people, the majority of them in suburban trains in the country's financial and entertainment capital.

The targets of bombings in Mumbai during the evening rush hour were the suburban train service that is the lifeline of the city. The stations that were targeted were Khar, Mahim, Matunga, Jogeshwari, Borivili, Bhayandra (Mira Road) and the Khar-Santa Cruz subway.

Indian duo sign for US baseball team

New York, Nov 25: India maybe non-existent in the baseball map but Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel, both from Uttar Pradesh, made at least a beginning by signing for five-time World Series Champions Pittsburgh Pirates as "non-drafted free agents" for the team's Minor League Spring Training next year.

Both finds of a TV reality show, the UP duo would now learn the basics of the game and scouts here believe the colts would require at least four years of minor league toil before breaking into the major league.

Announcing the signing, Pirates general manager Neal Huntington said the move was aimed at reaching out to an untapped market that is India.

"The Pirates are committed to creatively adding talent to our organisation. By adding these two young men, we are pleased to not only add two prospects to our system but also hope to open a pathway to an untapped market," he said.

"We are intrigued by Patel's arm strength and Singh's frame and potential. These young men have improved a tremendous amount in their six-month exposure to baseball, and we look forward to helping them continue to fulfill their potential," he added.

Discovered during the Indian leg of the TV reality show "Million Dollar Arm", Rinku, who won the contest, and Dinesh, the finalist, have no previous baseball experience.

Since their arrival here, both trained with University of Southern California pitching coach Tom House and in the tryout earlier this month, they hurled in the low-90s which was enough to earning a Spring Training invitation at the 'Bucs', as the Pirates are known as.

House, meanwhile, made it clear that the Indian duo are not finished products and it might take a while before they really shape up as quality pitchers.

"They still have to learn how to play the game," House said.

"Their talent is the upside, but it's going to take them a while to learn how to play. It's not going to take much to get them to sign, either. If you're looking at it as an organisation, you can really develop these kids.”

"I know they can pitch, but we have to teach them how to play the game. It's well worth the risk," House added.

Both Dinesh and Rinku were javelin throwers in schools.

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Wall Street's crisis could cost 225,000 New York jobs over two years

New York, Nov 25: Wall Street's painful downsizing could cost 225,000 New Yorkers their jobs over the next two years as it recent era of outsize profits may have ended and it adapts to less leverage, the state comptroller said on Monday.

employees could be axed in related fields, such as banking, insurance, and real estate, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli forecast in a new report.

Wall Street seems to have overpaid its employees in the first six months of this year, DiNapoli said adding that total compensation ate up "an unsustainable" 97 percent of net revenues. In contrast, the ratio averaged only 53 percent from 1990 to 2006.

And unlike previous cycles in this traditionally boom-and-bust industry, Wall Street might not revisit its recent mistakes, at least for awhile, because the federal bank bailout includes some new curbs while the new Democratic Obama administration views stiffer regulations as a must.

Further, the new bank holding company model adopted by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley after rival Lehman Brothers was allowed to sink into bankruptcy, comes with regulations that did not apply to these titans when they were investment banks.

"The challenge is that we know that Wall Street is going to look different than before we went into this," DiNapoli said,

The end of the leverage generation could transform investment banking, withering mergers and acquisitions. It also might herald a era of lower but more stable profits, he said.

Wall Street likely will employ fewer people -- and reward them less generously, DiNapoli added, predicting that the past few years of "outsize" profits would not be matched again.

The securities industry lost 16,000 jobs last month on a year-over-year basis, the state Labor Department said last week. Because these workers are paid so generously, an average of almost USD 400,000 last year, these jobs spur hiring in many other sectors, from shops to advertising firms.

That intensifies the pain of Wall Street's breakdown, as each of this industry's jobs could cause two workers to be laid off in New York City and 1.3 employees to be cut in the state, the Democratic comptroller explained.

Securities company executives, moreover, should not reap bonuses because it's "inappropriate to reward poor performance," DiNapoli said, noting that broker/dealer desks of New York Stock Exchange member firms lost almost USD 21 billion in the first six months of this year.

Bonuses now could plunge in half, the way they did in the early 2000s, after the end of the Internet speculative fever and the deadly September 11 air attacks in 2001, DiNapoli said.

That might bring these payments down to USD 16 billion. This will also hurt Wall Street's lower-level employees, who just like investment bankers and top traders, often rely heavily on bonuses. "New York will feel a lot of pain from a shrunken bonus pool," DiNapoli said.

The state and city could lose USD 6.5 billion in tax revenues from Wall Street over two years. New York City gets 12 percent of its tax revenues from this industry, while the state gets 20 percent.

DiNapoli also warned that job "losses could be greater if the economic downturn is deeper and longer than currently forecast."

Wall Street's job force peaked at 200,300 in December 2000. As of last month, this sector employed 171,400 people, according to the state Labor Department.

New York City lost 232,1000 private-sector jobs in the recession that stretched from 2001 to 2003.

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I’ll never do ‘Bigg Boss’ again, says winner Ashutosh Kaushik

New Delhi
, Nov 23 (IANS) Life for young dhaba owner Ashutosh Kaushik has taken an upward swing ever since he participated in television reality shows. But after winning Rs.10 million on “Bigg Boss”, he doesn’t wish to take part in such a programme ever again.”If I get a chance to be a part of ‘Bigg Boss’ again, I will not do it for sure. It’s not that I can’t spend time again there, but I don’t want to do it because I don’t want to snatch someone else’s chance of winning the show,” Ashutosh told IANS over phone from Mumbai.

This year has been pleasantly unpredictable for Ashutosh. He ran a roadside eatery just a year ago but then Lady Luck began to smile upon him and he got selected for adventure reality show “MTV Roadies 5.0? which he later won.

It was followed by his win at “Bigg Boss” Saturday night. He plans to buy a house for himself in Mumbai with the money he got.

“After I won ‘Roadies’, I was still living on the streets. And I had nothing to do. Now I hope that with this money, I am able to avail the basic amenities of life. I will also bring my family here,” he said.

While in the “Bigg Boss” house, Ashutosh was often accused of using foul language. But he says it was because there was nothing to do in the house.

“When we didn’t have anything to talk about, that’s what we used to do - abuse each other. And it was all in good fun. I never abused anyone on the face. If anyone can prove that I abused him or her openly, I’m ready to give the ‘Bigg Boss’ title to that person,” said Ashutosh who was also criticised for his unhealthy living habits.

Although Ashutosh shared a good relationship with almost every participant on the show, he became closer to Rahul Mahajan, son of late Bharatiya Janata Party leader Pramod Mahajan, and former Miss World Diana Hayden.

Ashutosh also won the title of Mr. Honest while in the “Bigg Boss” house.

He now has plans to join Bollywood, a dream he wanted to pursue after he won “MTV Roadies”.

Raja and Zulfi play media men

Raja plays the part of a journalist and Zulfi is the camera man…

They start the news by saying welcome to the Bigg Boss Bulletin, we have loads stuffs happening in the Bigg Boss House to start with:

• The chocolate task that was provided by Bigg Boss was quite exciting and the person who did'nt come to know about the trick that Bigg Boss played on the housemates was Rahul Mahajan!

• The housemates are very happy to have Monica back in the Bigg Boss House except Rahul Mahajan because Monica has changed her behaviour towards Rahul and iIf Rahul tries to come close to Monica she is 10 feet away from him… Raja then calls Monica and Rahul to the Bigg Boss studios and asks them questions regarding the same.

• Further all the housemates are very happy because they have got a good weekly budget.

• Raja says 'the most surprising thing of the Bigg Boss House' is Ahsaan not being nominated for 8 weeks at a stretch and has broken all records of the Bigg Boss House.

• Then he calls Debojit as the angry young man because Debojit got angry and upset with Bigg Boss for not sending Roshguls for Dassera.

Raja concludes the Bigg Boss Bulletin by saying, “Thanks for tuning in.”