In the new version of Windows you will see one major change from previous Windows versions is a completely new ‘Start Menu’. It is replaced with a colorful tiled design that evokes the Expose screen of Firefox or other similar quick-screen-navigation features found in most new web browsers. New start screen shows both static program icons and widgets called ‘Live tiles’. It provides constant notification and updates. The new OS also allow users to access all the files on their computer in the same visualized way that programs are accessed, which helps make the OS easy to navigate with touch alone.

It is designed with keeping tablets in mind but still you can use it with mouse and keyboard. Windows 8 users can switch from application to application by swiping left and right in a similar fashion to mobile phone OSs, like Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android.

It comes with included apps such as a stock ticker app, like a weather app and a built-in news app, all take advantage of the entire screen. Still it is multitasking and multiple apps can be viewed simultaneously on the same screen simply by dragging and dropping the app window onto the main screen.

Windows 8 also takes advantage of current web standards, like HTML 5 and JavaScript, and is optimized to work with Microsoft’s upcoming web browser, Internet Explorer 10.

Militants Killed By Pak Jets

Pakistani jets and helicopter gunships targeted the rebels and their hideouts. In this firing, 40 got killed which include 10 civilians and the rest are militants. The target was the Pakistani tribal region near the Afghanistan border. The attack took place in the tirah valley of Khyber agency. This is one of the seven tribal districts and the prime hub of Taliban and the fighters of al Qaida.

Major Fazl Ur Rehman said –

“We don’t have confirmed figures about the civilian deaths, but 10 among those killed must be civilians.”

He further said –

The airstrikes destroyed 12 hideouts of the militants.

An official said –

Air raids were carried out after authorities obtained information about the presence of dozens of militants in the area who were planning attacks in neighboring Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.

He continued –

“Some bombs also hit nearby houses and killed women and children.

Fate of thousands of engineering degree holders now hang in balance as a result. Some of them have been waiting since completion of their engineering degree course in May 2008. “I have received no official information.  They just intimated that we will join the company by March 2009”, said Narayan Dutt Pandey, a student of Hooghly Academy of Technology who is waiting to join the company.

Not only Pandey but another 55 students who were recruited in the same process by the company from West Bengal face the same fate now.  Despite being selected since March 2007, they are yet to be absorbed by the company.  The worst part of it is that these 55 students constitute only a very small fraction of over one thousand recruits from West Bengal alone.

Incidentally, Satyam has been one of the largest recruiters besides TCS, Infosys and Wipro in the State that produces around 18,000 engineering graduates annually from the 60 engineering colleges in the State.
Saikat Basu, the placement officer for the West Bengal University of Technology or WBUT says that Satyam was the largest recruiter for the state engineering students.

“Last year, they recruited nearly 300 students in the IT sector alone,” said Basu. Other students come from divergent sectors.

The students recruited will have a tough time finding jobs say Sekhar Chowdhury, the placement officer of MCKV Institute of Engineering.  “Colleges are helpless in such cases”, he says.  Once again, Satyam was the largest recruiter for this college.

“If IITs and IIMs cannot do anything when Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, the students have to put up through these difficult times too. Thousands of our students will face the slowdown crisis, where jobs are not coming easily,” said Diptesh Chakraborty, supreme council member of the West Bengal Government Engineering and Technological Colleges Teachers Association.

“Moreover, engineering colleges and the WBUT make sure they are not caught in a situation where they are without jobs,” Chakraborty added.

Despite such bleak scenario, placement officials as well as faculties all over feel that a wrong doing organization has no moral rights to carry on recruitment processes in college campuses.

 At only 38, Omar Abdullah is the youngest of the chief ministers of Kashmir.  However the throne would not be a rose of beds for him according to his father. 

“Omar has got a very difficult task cut out”, says his father.  His reference obviously is to the troubled state of affairs in the northern most state in India.  More trouble is expected with the relationship with Pakistan reaching the lowest ebb owing to the dispute regarding action against terrorists who masterminded the Bombay massacre. 

While Omar is the third generation chief minister hailing from the same dynasty following grandfather Sheikh Abdullah and after him Farooq Abdullah who were chief Ministers of the state.

It came as a shock to the secessionist forces in Kashmir when the Pro-India NC party emerged as the single-largest party in the recent elections.  It was the first election held in Kashmir after a wave of deadly protests caused panic all around.  The party comes to power forming a coalition with the Congress party, according to Abdullah. 

“Kashmir’s first election since a wave of deadly protest against Indian rule swept through the disputed region has resulted in a deadlocked legislature”, officials sources revealed, “sparking a scramble to form a new coalition government”. 

“Our party is likely to approach Congress officials to discuss forming an alliance”, said Omar Abdullah. 

With constant threats across the border from the neighboring country Pakistan, reinforced by their connection with China north of the troubled state, the task ahead for Omar Abdullah seems quite challenging.  He has to revive the faith of the people on the administration, put the troubled house in order, and at the same time keep a close vigil on activities across the border. 

Though the youngest chief minister of Kashmir puts up a brave front, only time can say how far he would succeed in accomplishing the hard task and carry out the responsibilities put on his shoulders.

The landlocked kingdom country is plagued by Maoist subversive activities for quite some times now.  Killing of the four forest rangers was one of such incidents.  The explosion occurred near Singye village in the Southern district Sarpang in Bhutan on Tuesday.

“Six Bhutanese forest rangers were returning to their camp at village Phibsoo from Sarpang town after shopping when the tractor they were travelling in hit a landmine planted on the road”, said one of the spokesmen for the Royal Bhutan Police. 

“After the explosion, four foresters were shot by the militants and later their dead bodies were dragged near the tractor and set on fire”, the Police spokesman went on to say.

Killing the foresters the Maoists departed with a couple of rifles and ammunitions that the dead rangers were carrying.  However, two other forest rangers managed to escape despite sustaining serious injuries.

‘The attack could have been the work of the Communist Party of Bhutan based in Nepal,’ the police statement said.

Incidentally the Communist Party in Bhutan is composed mostly of Bhutanese ethnic Nepali refugees.  These refugees are based in Nepal and fighting constantly for the restoration of democratic rights of the refugees.  Thy have been waging violent campaigns opposing the monarchy rule.  At the same time they are also opposing the newly elected Bhutanese Government.

These are believed in many quarters to be sequels of the pro-democracy agitations that the country witnessed in 1990s when a section of the Nepali-speaking residents of Southern part of the country revolted against the reigning monarchy. Subsequently, the crackdown forced thousands of such people to flee into Nepal.  To day over 100,000 people are sheltered in relief camps.

Explosions gathered momentum when in 2008 the Maoist Guerrillas of the Community Party played role in more than a dozen explosions in the otherwise peaceful nation.  There was a major shift from monarchy to parliamentary democracy last years. 

‘We have intensified security operations in the area where the explosion took place and taking all possible steps to ensure that those responsible for the attack are nabbed,’ a senior Bhutanese police official said.

Government officials in Bhutan are hopeful but how far they succeed in their objective remains to be seen.

“We are not involved in troop building along the borders”, sources from the defense ministry said.  “We had no plans for a military action, but we want a combination of executive action and judicial process against terrorist elements like the Lashker-e-Toiba and Jamaat-ud-Dawah since both is linked to Mumbai attacks”, he added. 

The High Commissioner Satyabrata Pal was attending in a meeting with the Foreign Secretary of Pakistan Salman Bashir in Islamabad when the said message came up. Manpreet Vohra, the Deputy High Commissioner was also present in the said meeting.

On their part, Pakistan says that any strike by India in response to the attacks on Mumbai shall be considered as an “act of war”.  

There was “no reason for the war hysteria” that is witnessed in Pakistan, was the response of Indian officials.  They made it amply clear that New Delhi had no such plans for military attack on Pakistan. 

“Words and commitments were not adequate in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks, which were just a symptom of the longer problem of terrorists operating from the Pakistani soil”, they commented.  “There is a need for firm action against such elements.  We don’t see the shutting down of terrorist camps.  Armed militants with guns are still moving around and terrorist camps are still operational”, said the Indian officials. 

Shutting down terrorist camps and placing a clamp on the terrorist activities originating from Pakistani soil, especially in the Pakistani occupied Kashmir requires executive action on the part of the Pakistani regime. Action taken in this line will be compliance to the UN Security Council resolution seeking action against militant and terrorist groups.

Mohammad Sadiq, the Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman said that there was need for India taking steps to defuse tensions.  They are reportedly waiting for India’s response to their proposal for dealing with the fallout of Mumbai incident. 

India, however, is waiting for more action by Pakistani authorities against the militants before proceeding with response to such proposals, defense sources informs.

In the meanwhile the Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said that Pakistan will not initiate face-off with India but is prepared to defend itself from aggression on the occasion of the first anniversary of the murder of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. 

It is however difficult to believe that such stand taken by Pakistan would be appreciated either by India or a critical world as the country is time and again falling short of its commitment of combating and erasing terrorist elements.

“The terrorist attack was unprecedented and the attackers need to be eliminated.  Islamabad has still a lot to do in combating such terrorism”, top diplomatic sources in Washington said.

Elaborating the US objectives, Richard Boucher, Assistant Secretary of State for the affairs of South and Central Asian nations said that his country’s “immediate focus is to get rid of the terrorists and stop them from doing anything more.”

“Let’s find the people responsible, lets eliminate the groups who were responsible and lets make sure we do everything we can to prevent India from suffering this kind of attack again.  That’s an immediate focus that requires everybody’s co-operation, and when we are through that co-operation, we can also start co-operation on broader things,” said Boucher in an interview. 

While the Pakistani regime is leaving no stone unturned to blur the focus away from the possible crack down on the Pakistan-based groups like the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT)who many believe was the mastermind behind the Mumbai attack, the demand of America caught them on the wrong foot. 

“Pakistan has taken some promising steps, but there is a lot to be done to tackle the menace”, said Boucher again.  “Pakistan and India should co-operate and draw a plan to look over such incidents in the future to make certain that such terror assaults against India are curbed”, he went on to say while urging Pakistan to understand clearly the significance of co-operation under the circumstances.

Is however seems that the expectations of Boucher could be a distant dream in view of the recent Pakistani attitude of not seeing reasons.  This is amply evident from their recent action in arresting an Indian who is a British Embassy employee on the alleged charges of conspiring in the Lahore serial bombing incidents.  The ploy backfired when one of the Pakistan based militant groups assumed the responsibility for such incidence of bombing. 

Even when the pressure on Pakistan from all quarters is high demanding elimination of terrorism, the Pakistani Military is showing signs of massive preparations along the border and the shadow of another unfortunate war looms large on the sub continent.

It all happened in a Christmas Party in the quiet middle class suburb of Covina about 30 Kilometers from Los Angeles where people were celebrating the festive occasion.  Little did they know that their merry making would eventually turn into a nightmarish experience culminating in loss of lives.

A man who was dressed as Santa Claus opened up fire at the Christmas party killing no less than six innocent persons in the process.  He did not stop there and went on to set fire to the house.  Later the assassin was identified as Bruce Jeffery Padro and the house belongs to his former wife.

“The 45 year old man was led into the party by an eight year old girl who thought he was there to entertain the children.  Once inside, witnesses said that the man pulled out a gun from beneath his costume, shot the girl in the face and then sprayed nearly 25 guests with bullets”, Los Angeles Police Sources said.

As a sequel to his gruesome act, the man set fire to the house with the help of a home made device.  The device was wrapped up so that it looked like a Christmas present.

“Padro has shot himself” said his brother calling the Los Angeles Police a few hours later.  Police rushed to the spot only to find Padro lying dead in his brother’s home with a gunshot wound to his head.

Victims of the sad incident were yet to be identified by the Police who are making further investigation in the event. Till now no clue relating to the motive of such awful act has been traced out by them.

“The investigation is on, and we are likely to find out the motive behind such act by Padro”, a senior police officer said.  “We expect to break in and solve the mystery in a couple of days”, he added.

It was only on this Tuesday that Bush granted pardon for 19 persons. It included one Isaac Robert Toussie who held from Brooklyn N.Y.  This man was convicted on the grounds of making false statements to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development as well as mail fraud.  The White House came up with an extraordinary statement on Wednesday announcing the revocation of the decision in Toussie’s case.

The new decision was “based on information that has subsequently come to light”, said Dana Perino, the Press Secretary of White House. The information included the extent and nature of previous criminal activities of Toussie.  In addition, she said, Toussie’s father had made a political contribution that “might create an appearance of impropriety”. 

“Given that, this was the prudent thing to do”, she quipped.

While Perino insists that the information was obtained by White House from the news reports, sources make a deviation pointing out that Toussie’s father, Robert, made a donation of $28,500 to the Republican Party funds in April, only a couple of months before Toussie made his mercy petition. The story made headlines in the New York Daily News. 

Perino however remained firm in her statement that “the counsel’s office generally doesn’t include vetting of political contributions in its reviews” and that would be “highly inappropriate on many levels” she said.

The White House sources tried to justify the decision of revocation of the pardon granted on the ground that the decision in favor of Toussie had come up without recommendation of Pardon attorney, Ronald L. Rodgers. They also point out that the pardon request had come before the completion of mandatory five years serving in custody.

Critics are however not satisfied with all these explanations advanced.  They insist that the President can forgive people even overlooking the process if he so chooses.  His powers of granting pardon under the constitution are absolute and cannot be overruled. Even the White House sources could not recall another such remarkable incidence in recent past.

“Nobody wants tensions on the borders and we are moving responsibly and with caution,” Gilani told press people who met him in a ceremony at Islamabad.

In the same vein he did not forget to point out that the war preparedness has reached an optimal level in Pakistan and it is prepared for any eventuality.    He claimed that the entire nation backs its army at this crucial moment in the history of Pakistan with a vow to maintain the sovereignty and integrity of the country.

Good relationship with India could only be possible with mutual respect, said Gillani.  “The Government is aware of the situation in the region and will act as things move”, he continued.  At the same time he also blamed certain elements who were trying to foment tension between the two countries with highly motivated publicity of having “so called” evidences that Mumbai attack organizers hail from Pakistan.

 Whatever he says, recent incidents narrate a different story.  Pakistani warplanes have been conducting regular surveys over the strategic cities and habitations in the wake or mounting tension and possibility of war looming large.

It could well be a last minute attempt by the Pakistani leaders to escape the mounting international pressure for action against the terrorists rooted there.  India on the other hand has been consistently insisting on having handed over all the evidences against the suspects to the Pakistan Government.  The Indian Defense Minister, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee’s statement contained no ambiguous terms when he said that Pakistan was given all the evidences required but they are not taking any action.  “If they won’t, we will” he categorically said.

Unfortunately, war is an evil and the burnt is borne by the innocent mass that neither has any involvement with terrorism nor with armed combats.  Loss to them in consequence of any war is always heavy.  One can only hope that the Pakistani leaders would see reason and take action to uproot the terrorism blooming across from their own land.