Russia’s Medvedev pardons four jailed spies-RIA

July 9 (Reuters) – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has pardoned four people jailed for passing secrets to the West as part of a Cold War-style spy swap with the United States, local news agencies reported on Friday.

Medvedev signed a decree to pardon Alexander Zaporozhsky, Gennady Vasilenko, Igor Sutyagin and Sergei Skripal, who are all serving prison terms for espionage, his spokeswoman Natalya Timakova was quoted by Russia’s state RIA news agency as saying. (Reporting by Alexei Anishchuk, writing by Guy Faulconbridge)

Yahoo buys Associated Content to connect better with its users

London, May 20 (ANI): Yahoo has taken over Associated Content, a user-generated news site, to improve its engagement with its users.

Associated Content boasts of over 380,000 contributors who receive a market-determined fee for their stories.

“Combining our crowd sourced content with Yahoo”s distribution, world class editorial team and online marketing leadership will accelerate our growth,” the BBC quoted Luke Beatty, Associated Content founder, as saying.

The site, which proclaims itself as “The people”s media company”, claims to offer content on over 60,000 topics, ranging from product reviews, through how-to advice, to local news.

More than 16 million unique users access the site per month, according to comScore.

Yahoo is now hoping to bring together its advertisers with relevant local news and information from Associated Content.

The financial terms of the deal are not known, but the price tag for Associated Content was reportedly around 100million dollars. (ANI)

New York considers closing schools if swine flu spreads

New York – New York City authorities considered Monday to close schools to prevent the swine flu from striking children after eight students at a Queens high school were confirmed sick of disease, reports said. The US government has declared a national public health emergency after tests confirmed 40 people in the United States, including the eight students in New York, have mild cases of the flu.

The Saint Francis high school in Fresh Meadows, Queens, where the eight students were found sick, was closed Monday and Tuesday to allow cleaning crews to sanitize the school.

Local news reports said six of the eight ill students apparently contract the flu during spring break in Mexico. They said about 150 students at the same school reported flu-like symptoms and were submitted to tests, prompting talks of a mass school closings to thwart the flu from spreading.(dpa)

Kuwait cbank says rate cut to catalyse economy

KUWAIT, April 12 (Reuters) – Kuwait’s central bank said it would reduce its benchmark discount rate by 25 basis points to 3.5 percent from Monday to reduce the cost of funding and catalyse the local economy, the state news agency reported.

“The decision to cut the discount rate at the central bank of Kuwait contributes another dose to push the wheel of local economic activity through cutting the cost os finance,” Sheikh Salem Abdul-Aziz al-Sabah said, according to KUNA.

The move coincides with the enactment of a state support package for the financial sector, Sheikh Salem said.

(Writing by Inal Ersan; Editing by Daliah Merzaban)

Katanec resigns as Macedonia coach

Skopje, Macedonia – Srecko Katanec has resigned as Macedonia national team coach, citing lack of discipline in the team, local news reports said on Monday.

Katanec was at the helm of the team since 2006. The Slovenian coach’s last match was a 4-0 defeat at the Netherlands in World Cup 2010 qualifying group 9 on April 1. Macedonia rank fourth in the five-team group.

Levi-Strauss to close Hungarian jeans factory

Budapest – Clothing giant Levi-Strauss confirmed on Friday that it will close its Hungarian plant by the end of June with the loss of 549 jobs.

The factory in the small southern town of Kiskunhalas has been turning out the company’s iconic denim jeans since 1988, when Hungary was still a communist state.

The US clothing company told the local news agency MTI that it had agreed a severance package with its Hungarian workers.

Over 30,000 jobs have been lost in Hungary since the effects of the global financial crisis hit the country hard last October.

The Levi-Strauss closure brings the total job losses this week to over 1,000. (dpa)

Maharashtrian should get a chance to become PM: Pawar

New Delhi, Mar 13 (ANI): The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Friday said a Maharashtrian should also be given an opportunity to occupy the Prime Minister’s chair.

“There is a feeling among Maharashtrian people that a number of states like Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, and Karnataka have got a chance to occupy the Prime Minister’s office. So Maharashtra should get an opportunity as well,” Pawar told a local TV news channel.

He, however, said one should not think of becoming the Prime Minister when he or she is contesting from limited number of seats.

“If my party is contesting hardly 30-35 seats in the entire country, how can anybody expect that I can take the responsibility to lead the nation with such a small number,” he said. (ANI)

Twitter To Start Serving Local News To Users?

Germany’s Der Spiegel published an interview with Twitter CEO Evan Williams yesterday on its website, and Williams had a couple of interesting things to say. You can find a poorly Google-translated version of the interview here, which features Williams answering the usual, boring questions ‘professional’ journalists tend to ask about the micro-sharing service (the reporter opened the interview with the Pulitzer-prize caliber question “so does Twitter spark narcissism and idiocy?”).

But Williams did share something worth noting at the end of the interview.

When asked about possible future features for Twitter, he reportedly said that one of the things being considered is an extension that lets people know what’s happening in their immediate vicinity. That would basically mean that Twitter could actively ping users about local events that are going on in their neighborhood, in real-time, based on the location they’ve indicated. As an example, Williams says users could be alerted to the fact a fire is burning a few streets away from where Twitter knows (or thinks) they are.

Jennifer Aniston ‘very happy’ with John Mayer

Washington, Feb 25 (ANI): Jennifer Aniston, who arrived at the Oscars red carpet hand in hand with beau John Mayer, claims that she is “very happy” with the singer.

In a backstage chitchat, the ‘Your body is a wonderland’ hitmaker said that he grew up watching Aniston as a local news anchor in their native Connecticut.

According to Us magazine, the ‘Friends’ star revealed: “He said that to me too.”

Mayer added: “This is the first time I’ve ever walked a red carpet with someone.”

When asked whether they both were happy being together, Aniston said: “Very happy.”

After the award ceremony the lovey-dovey couple hit the Vanity Fair Oscar party,and were spotted sharing several smooches throughout the night. (ANI)

Eco-friendly fireworks a major draw on Diwali in Lucknow markets

Lucknow, Special eco-friendly fireworks witnessed a high demand in Lucknow markets on the occasion of Diwali festival. Growing awareness about polluting fire crackers motivated families, especially children, to neglect them this time around.

Consequent to anti-firecracker campaign and awareness drive about ill-effects of bursting harmful firecrackers gaining momentum, manufacturers of firecrackers supplied eco-friendly variants anticipating public demand.

Carrying photographs of various Bollywood and Hollywood actors and actresses, the eco-friendly crackers were a major draw for everyone here.

These crackers don”t cause any kind of serious mishap like burns and fires. Besides, these new crackers can be used in indoor parties and functions also. These crackers work on the principle of vacuum pressure.

Thousands of residents in this City of Nawabs had taken oath of using only eco- friendly crackers. Hence, a high demand for eco-friendly firecrackers was witnessed.

“We always purchase crackers from this shop only on Diwali. But this time we thought that we won”t be bursting crackers, as it cause lot of pollution. But when we came to know about this brand new crackers being eco-friendly, we rushed to this shop and bought all sorts of such crackers,” said Satish, a resident of Lucknow.

Every year a high air and noise pollution on the occasion of Diwali used to reach the apex, which was intended to be relatively low this year, courtesy the eco friendly-crackers.

“On every Diwali, we try keeping new sorts of fire crackers. But this time we have kept eco-friendly firecrackers, and these crackers are doing pretty good business. These firecrackers don”t need to be ignited. All you have to do is just twist its rim and it will work automatically,” said Gulshan Azad, a vendor of firecrackers. (ANI)

Jessica Biel is terrified of ageing

Jessica Biel is terrified of ageingNew Delhi, American actress Jessica Biel has revealed that she is terrified of growing old.

Biel, 26, says that she can already feel the changes in her body, and wonders how she will cope when other people start to notice, the China Daily reported.

“I don”t know how I”ll cope with ageing – I better start figuring it out,” Britain”s Marie Claire magazine quoted her as saying.

“I feel my knees changing – like, why do I have this pain when I”m running on the treadmill? What”s going on with my lower back when I wake up in the morning? I just feel
changes.

“And I”m definitely fearful in a very vain manner about my body ageing. I think it”s freaky weird to look at a picture of your grandmother when she was a young woman and
look at her now,” she said.

However, she has also revealed that she would never resort to cosmetic surgery to keep her looking young and her wrinkles away.

“I am really afraid of blades on my face – that freaks me out beyond belief. I would way rather have wrinkles than have some slice-up going on,” she added. (ANI)

Blast accused Peerbhoy wants to turn approver

Mumbai, Oct 27: Mohammed Mansoor Peerbhoy, who was arrested by Mumbai police Crime Branch for his alleged involvement in the Indian Mujhaideen plot, especially the Terror emails, has filed an application before the special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court seeking to turn approver in the case.

According to the police Peerbhoy, who worked with a multinational software company in Pune and was earning an annual salary of Rs
19 lakh, was responsible for hacking unsecured Wi-Fi networks in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai and sending emails to news channels minutes before the July 26 Ahmedabad blasts and the September 13 Delhi explosions.

He is currently in custody and had aroused considerable interest during his last appearance in court when he had slipped a note to a special judge hearing the case.

The contents of the note remain under wraps but it could have been a plea to turn approver in the case. The prosecution has been asked to file a reply on the note by October 29.

According to Joint Commissioner of Police (crime) Rakesh Maria, “An advocate of the accused filed an application before the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act court and the court asked us for our say. We will file it very soon.”

All 20 accused in the case have been charged under the stringent the MCOCA in which police can hold the accused in custody for prolonged periods of time and also gets up to six months to file a charge-sheet. (ANI)