Our First Video Show: Green Overdrive Is a GO!

We’re very excited to present our new video show, Green Overdrive, brought to you by GigaOM TV and Earth2Tech. If it’s green, we’ll drive it. Each week we’ll test out a different eco-friendly vehicle — whether it’s the latest electric car, plug-in motorcycle, or biofuel-filled bus — and bring you our impressions as well as interviews with the companies.

We’re kicking things off with the first three episodes, where we drive Zero Motorcycle’s electric dirt bike, the Chevy Volt, and Ultra Motor’s A2B electric bicycle. Since we’re just starting out, we’d love your feedback or suggestions on what we should drive next, just add them into the comments. So far I’ve learned that a 150-lb electric motorcycle can hit a squirrel at 40 mph and not topple over (that really happened). The green transportation revolution is here and we’re gonna drive it.

Zero Motorcycles

The Chevy Volt

Ultra Motor’s A2B Electric Bicycle

For sponsorship opportunities email Mike Sly, at: “sly AT gigaom.com”

Malay-Indian youngsters to discuss community issues with Prime Minister

Malaysia, Apr 27 (ANI): Malay-Indian winners of the “The Wish List of Generation 2020”

competition will share their vision directly with the Malay Prime Minister Najib Razak

on June 12 this year.

The competition has been organised by the government to give the Malaysian Government a

chance to woo for Malay-Indians who form twenty percent of the Malaysian vote-bank. The

general elections are soon to be held in the country.

“The main objective of the competition is to provide a platform for the youths from the

Indian community to voice their needs and hopes to the Prime Minister,” The Star quoted

Deputy Minister M. Thambirajah, as saying.

The government is leaving no stone unturned to appease the Malay-Indian community. Apart

from a chance to meet the PM, prizes include motorcycles and laptops. (ANI)

UPDATE 2-Yamaha Motor to raise up to $812 mln in share sale

* Public offering could boost shares outstanding by 22 pct

Cyclical Consumer Goods | Financials

* Funds to develop efficient engines, low-cost motorcycles

* To spend total 202 bln yen on R&D in three years to 2012

TOKYO, April 2 (Reuters) – Japanese motorcycle maker Yamaha Motor Co (7272.T) said it will raise up to 76.1 billion yen ($812 million) in a share sale to finance the development of fuel-efficient engines and low-cost bikes for emerging markets.

Hit by a demand slump in the United States and Europe, as well as restructuring costs, Yamaha booked a hefty net loss of 216 billion yen in 2009 and aims to break even this year.

The offering will mark the largest equity-based fund raising by a company in the auto sector since Mazda Motor’s (7261.T) deal to procure 98 billion yen in October last year.

Players in the auto market have entered into a costly race to cope with the demand plunge in the United States, the world’s largest market, as well as a shift in customer appetite towards environmentally-friendly products, including hybrid and electric vehicles.

Yamaha said it will develop more fuel-efficient engines for motorcycles and boats to improve the competitiveness of its products, as well as electric motorcycles and motor-assisted bicycles, for which demand is seen rising.

This is the first equity fund-raising by Yamaha since it raised 40.3 billion yen in May 2007.

The company said in a statement on Friday that it would issue up to 63.25 million shares, including a greenshoe option of 8.25 million shares. The public offering could increase its total number of shares outstanding by 22 percent.

Nomura Securities, a unit of Nomura Holdings (8604.T), will manage the sale, Yamaha said.

The firm said it would spend a total of 202 billion yen on research and development in the three years to 2012 to help achieve growth in emerging and ASEAN countries and to accelerate the development of environmentally-friendly engines.

It spent 62 billion yen on research and development in 2009 and has budgeted 60 billion yen for the current year.

Under its recently compiled mid-term business plan, the company aims to raise its annual revenues to 1.4 trillion yen by 2012 from 1.15 trillion yen in 2009, although that would still be short of the 1.6 trillion yen achieved in 2008. (Reporting by Yumiko Nishitani; Editing by Joseph Radford

Yamaha Motor to raise Y76.1 bln yen via new share sale

TOKYO, April 2 (Reuters) – Japanese motorcycle maker Yamaha Motor (7272.T) said on Friday it will raise up to 76.1 billion yen ($811.6 million) through a share sale to finance the development of fuel-efficient engines and low-cost motorcycles for emerging markets.

Cyclical Consumer Goods

The company said it will issue 55 million shares in a public offering. (Reporting by Yumiko Nishitani)

Yamaha Motor to raise Y76.1 bln yen via new share sale

TOKYO, April 2 (Reuters) – Japanese motorcycle maker Yamaha Motor (7272.T) said on Friday it will raise up to 76.1 billion yen ($811.6 million) through a share sale to finance the development of fuel-efficient engines and low-cost motorcycles for emerging markets.

Cyclical Consumer Goods

The company said it will issue 55 million shares in a public offering. (Reporting by Yumiko Nishitani)

Covert speed cameras on roads by Easter

Police Minister Neil Roberts says covert speed cameras will be rolled out on Queensland roads in time for the Easter break.

Three cameras fitted to different unidentified vehicles will be used across southern and central Queensland starting on Thursday.

Mr Roberts says two unmarked police motorbikes will start operating at the same time.

“There’s clear evidence which shows that increasing uncertainty does change driver behaviour,” he said.

“If we can simply get people to make a simple decision to abide by the speed limit we can save around 80 lives per year.

“So the deployment of these covert vehicles and motorcycles is all about changing driver behaviour, getting people to stick to the speed limit.”

Mr Roberts says the introduction of covert speed cameras is not a sign that existing fixed and mobile cameras do not work.

He says it is important to have a combination of covert and visible cameras on the roads.

“High visibility policing, high visibility enforcement does have an impact, but it is important to add that additional element of uncertainty and chances of detection to try to change driver behaviour,” he said.

Queensland Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson says the covert speed cameras will be deployed in high-crash zones and areas where speeding and hooning are reported.

He says they are intended to target serious offenders.

“That’s not for your average law abiding motorist who if they get caught speeding, it’s because of error or accident,” he said.

“We’re really after those high-end people.

“We think those high-end people, the ones who just have a total disregard for the law, are enormously disproportionately represented in the road toll.”

The covert cameras will be rolled out in north Queensland at a later date.

Letters by Lawrence of Arabia discovered

London, Sept 19 (ANI): Fascinating letters written by Lawrence of Arabia have been found years after they were thought to have been burned on a fire.

In the letters, the hero of the Arab revolt in the First World War talks about his love of motorcycles, which led to his death in a road accident in 1935, reports The Telegraph.

Speaking about one of his machines, he wrote: “It’s a heavenly bike, goes like smoke and is as smooth as milk to ride.”

The correspondence – found when an envelope fell out of an old book – will be auctioned on October 1 in Dorchester, Dorset, and could fetch more than 10,000 pounds.

Dorset historian Rodney Legg, who has written numerous books on Lawrence, said: “It’s mysterious how Lawrence managed to balance his finances. He sometimes spent lavishly and at other times wrote letters to friends proclaiming poverty.

“So anything that throws light on the relationship with his banker is quite revealing.” (ANI)

Tata Nano makes showroom debut in Hyderabad

Hyderabad, July 14 (ANI): Tata Motors on Tuesday rolled out the first commercial consignment of Nano, regarded as the World’s cheapest car to be showcased at Hyderabad on Tuesday.

“The first consignment has come to Hyderabad. Tata Nanos’ have been dispatched particularly for Hyderabad. They have sent 84 cars, out of which 50 are Tata Nano and the rest 34 are Magic,” said S K Singh, Area Manager of Tata Motors.

Residents in the ‘Twin Cities’ of Hyderabad and Secunderabad had been eagerly waiting for the Tata Nano, costing just over Rs 1,00,000.

They contended that this car is a boon for the middle class society.

“In Rs 1,00,000, you get a Pulsar. Here, in one lakh, five people can travel together. I need to find out the details about its mileage. Once these cars start running on road, all motorcycles will disappear,” said Deep Bhavanishankar, a local resident. (ANI)

Iran’s ‘Joan of Arc’ pro-democracy martyr’s murder described by doctor

London, June 29 (ANI): A doctor who tried to save the life of pro-democracy martyr Neda Agha-Soltan after she was fatally shot, has told the BBC that the militiaman who fired the bullet did not want to kill her.

Dr. Arash Hejazi said that while he was trying to save her life, he heard the militiaman who shot Soltan in the heart last week, saying: ‘I didn’t want to kill her!

Hejazi, who is seen in the now-famous video trying in vain to save the 26-year-old woman by compressing her terrible chest wound, risked his life to talk to the BBC.

He fled to Britain four days after the killing and thinks he may never be able to go home again.

“It was a tough decision to make to come out and talk about it. She was fighting for basic human rights. She wanted her vote to be counted. I don’t want her blood to have been shed in vain. I am jeopardizing my situation because of the innocent look in her eyes before she died,” said Hejazi, a doctor turned novelist and publisher.

He said he and some friends went to check out the June 20 protests in Tehran. He saw a phalanx of the brutal Basij militiamen riding motorcycles towards the crowd.

“Suddenly everything turned crazy. The police threw teargas and the motorcycles started rushing towards the crowd,” he said.

“We heard a gunshot. Neda was standing [three feet] away from me. I didn’t know her – she was just one other person in the crowd. I turned back and I saw blood gushing out of Neda’s chest. She was in a shocked situation, just looking at her chest. She died in less than one minute.”

There were reports last week that the crowd killed a militiaman believed to have shot Neda, but Hejazi said that wasn’t so.

“People didn’t know what do to do with him so they let him go. Some people said, ‘Don’t harm him. We are not killers like him,’” he said. (ANI)

Two robberies by motorcycle riders in Ghaziabad

Ghaziabad, May 23 (IANS) Motorcycle-borne men robbed two transport company employees of Rs.510,000 and stole valuables from the house of a businessman in this Uttar Pradesh town adjacent to the capital Saturday, police said.

Two men on a black Pulsar motorcycle snatched a bag containing cash from Gopal Das, a manager with the National Transport Company, outside the RDC branch of HDFC bank at about 2.30 p.m.

Das told IANS that he and company accountant Mahendra Tiwari had withdrawn money from the bank and were leaving the branch when they were robbed.

At about 6 a.m., three men barged into a businessman’s house in Shalimar Extension-I and stole cash and jewellery worth Rs.3 million at gun point. Only the businessman’s wife and daughter-in-law were at home at the time of the robbery.

Police said the criminals escaped on two motorcycles.

Robbery Of Rs.1.2 mn at Ghaziabad bank

Ghaziabad, May 22 (IANS) Three armed robbers looted Rs.1.2 million (Rs.12 lakh) from a bank here Friday afternoon, police said.

According to the police, the robbers came on two motorcycles at 3.00 p.m. While one man covered the security guard, two of his accomplices barged into the bank and snatched the currency-chest containing cash from the cashier.

“The bank officials revealed that the chest contained about Rs.1.2 million but the amount could be higher since an inventory of loss is yet being prepared,” district police chief Akhil Kumar said.

Taliban claims responsibility for killing female politician in Kandahar

Kabul, Apr.13 (ANI): The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the killing of a female politician who championed women’s rights.

Sitara Achakzai was gunned down outside her home in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan, on Sunday.

The Telegraph quoted Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmedi as claiming responsibility for Sunday’s attack.

Four men, who drove up on two motorcycles, shot at Achakzai as she was getting out of her car.
Achakzai, a dual German-Afghan citizen, spent the years of Taliban rule in Germany and returned to her native country to fight for women’s rights, said Shahida Bibi, a member of the Kandahar women’s association who worked with Achakzai.

A member of Kandahar’s provincial council, Achakzai was vocal in encouraging women to take jobs and encouraging them to fight for equal rights, Bibi said. (ANI)

3 killed in accident as rival convoys crash

NELLORE: Three political activists were killed and another injured in a road accident when a convoy of rival parties encountered each other in
Atmakur constituency on Saturday. The dead were Arikatla Venkata Subbaiah and Rachakonda Venkateswarlu, both of the TDP, and Penugonda Srinivasulu of the Congress.

According to the police, TDP candidate Kommi Lakshmaiah Naidu was returning home alongwith his supporters after filing his nomination in the afternoon when they encountered Congress candidate Anam Narayana Reddy and his men who were on their way to file his nomination.

The police said the rival groups who were on four wheelers and motorcycles, refused to yield the way to the other resulting in a collision between some of them.

A truck carrying Congress supporters accidentally hit a motorcycle that carried some TDP men and also another two-wheeler on which were the Congress supporters, resulting in the death of three of them. The condition of K Jayaramulu of the Congress is said to be critical.

Bajaj Auto sales down 14.7 percent in March

Mumbai, April 2 (IANS) Bajaj Auto posted sales of 132,640 two-wheelers units last month, down 14.7 percent as compared to the 155,504 units sold in March 2008, the company said Thursday.

Bajaj sold 132,210 motorcycles last month, reflecting a decline of 14.4 percent from the 154,443-unit sale the corresponding month last year.

Its total motorcycle sales for 2008-09 stood at 1,907,810, a decline of 10.8 percent compared to the 2,139,779 units sold the previous year.

The company also sold 2,194,108 three-wheelers in 2008-09, plummeting 10.5 percent from 2,451,407 sold in 2007-08.

The only silver lining for Bajaj was positive export figures, which showed a 24.9 percent growth with 772,519 units sold in 2008-09 – up from 618,341 last fiscal.

Nightmare for macho motorists: female-only traffic force

Nightmare for macho motorists: female-only traffic force Lima – A nightmare is coming true for many macho motorists in the Peruvian capital as the entire traffic police force will soon be female.

Since surveys show female officers in Lima to be far stricter and – more importantly – less bribable than males, they will be given complete control of the chaotic streets in the city of some 8 million inhabitants, the municipal traffic police announced recently.

Their 500 male colleagues are to be transferred to other departments. Meanwhile, General Arturo Davila, a man, will remain head of Lima’s traffic police.

By South American standards, an unusually large number of female traffic cops has already been thundering through town on heavy motorcycles. And tough customers they are. While traffic violations are often “fixable” with a small gratuity for senors, the senoras and senoritas are usually merciless and impose the fine dictated by law. (dpa)

Procession sparks communal violence in Maharashtra

Nanded (Maharashtra), Mar 14 (ANI): A religious procession turned violent when two communities clashed with each other in Nanded in Maharashtra on Friday.

Violence broke out when members of a community taking out a procession of a deity and chanting religious hymns and songs reached a mosque. They were suddenly caught in a flurry of stones pelted by a mob of another community from inside the mosque.

Soon the situation turned out of hand when both the community members started pelting stones each other. It spilled over to roads. Indulging in arson, the agitated members of both communities vented their fury on vehicles and shops in the area.

Police had to resort to baton charging and tear gassing to disperse the agitated mob and arrested around 30 people in connection with the incident.

“The incident took place within 100 meters from the police station. There was violence and stone pelting between people.

Although no cars were burnt but the people tried to set two motorcycles to fire.

We have so far arrested around 30 people in connection with the violence,” said Satyanarayan Chaudhry, Superintendent of Police (SP), Nanded.

The incident prompted the authorities to impose curfew in the region to avoid further trouble. (ANI)

Brad Pitt to play Steve McQueen?

Washington, Jan 16 (ANI): Brad Pitt is the frontrunner to play Steve McQueen in a movie about the late actor’s life.

Hollywood producers Michael Cerenzie and Christine Peters have acquired the rights to Marshall Terrill’s recent biography ‘Steve McQueen: Portrait of an American Rebel’, and are planning to begin shooting a biopic later this year.

And Pitt – who can currently be seen in new movie ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ – is reportedly in line to star as the ‘Great Escape’ actor.

“There are a number of actors being linked to the role of Steve McQueen but Brad is the frontrunner,” the Sun quoted a movie insider, as saying.

“He not only has the right look and acting talent but he shares Steve’s love for fast cars and motorcycles,” the insider added.
Steve died in 1980 from a heart attack following an operation to remove a cancerous tumour in his stomach. (ANI)

Talking car technology making progress

Hamburg – Smart car-to-car communication will one day make traffic jams obsolete and significantly improve road safety. That is the vision of several major car makers who recently presented the technology under realistic driving conditions at a test track in Germany.

Several cars, motorcycles and a truck could be seen communicating with each other at the Opel test track in Dudenhofen Germany based on wireless WLAN technology.

In principle, the technology works as follows: Car A is driving several kilometres ahead and sends information about an upcoming obstacle to car B allowing the driver to choose an alternative route or to slow down.

An important milestone was taken earlier this year when the European Commission made available an EU-wide frequency band.

Some 30 major car makers and other partners are grouped in the Car2 Car Communication Consortium aimed at defining a uniform standard for the communication technology between vehicles and road infrastructure.

The European Union is supporting the project, hoping to improve road safety and reduce traffic jams. The technology could be especially effective when it comes to upcoming vehicle congestion, accidents or icy roads.

Traffic management centres can also inform drivers about a sudden road closure, the alternative route to take or speed limits. The information is sent to a transmitter detector along the respective road, which then passes it on to the vehicles driving by.

“Getting critical messages through quickly and accurately is a must for road safety,” says European Union Telecommunications Commissioner Viviane Reding, pointing out that the time Europeans spend in traffic jams could cost some 80 billion euros (102 billion euros) by 2010 in lost working hours.

The EU-wide frequency in the 30 MHz spectrum in the 5.9 Gigahertz (GHz) band will be allocated in early 2009 by national authorities across Europe. This is in line with steps already taken in the United States and Japan, opening up an important milestone for the technology. (dpa)