Owing to rising costs and slow down of advertising revenues, UTV Software Communications has announced cut in costs in its broadcasting operations. The company has consolidated its operations for four television channels - UTV Movies, World Movies, Bindass and Bindass Movies - by phasing out its Delhi operations. 

UTV ran two channels from Delhi and the other two from Mumbai.

At the ongoing World Economic Forum-India Economic Summit, Arun Nanda, executive director (infrastructure development sector) of Mahindra and Mahindra, said, "Affordable housing market has a huge demand with consumers just sitting on the fence and waiting to get a clearer picture of the ongoing financial crisis.” 

The Mahindra group has a wholly-owned subsidiary, Mahindra Lifespace Developers Ltd, operating in the infrastructure development segment. 

Suzlon Energy, the biggest player in the wind turbine business in Asia and the fifth-largest worldwide, has decided to set up Solar Power Plant. 

At the Indian Economic Summit, Tulsi R Tanti, Suzlon Energy chairman and Managing Director stated, "We are exploring the solar energy sector as India has enormous opportunity in solar and wind power." 

Although he did not give any other financial details, he did mention identification of probable sites in Gujarat and Rajasthan, with an area of 10 acres required for one MW of solar power generation.

Washington  - Chiefs of the three US automakers went before Congress on Tuesday seeking an emergency injection of government money to stave off bankruptcies that could cost the US economy millions of jobs.

The so-called Big Three - General Motors Corp, Ford Motor Co and Chrysler LLC - are asking for 25 billion dollars from the 700- billion-dollar financial rescue package passed in October, arguing that the ongoing credit crisis has pushed their already struggling industry to the brink of collapse.

A frightening fact was put forward by the security experts yesterday that thieves are selling complete stolen identities online for as little as £80, and later, that each person’s details can earn internet fraudsters about £15,000. 

 In the past four years, banking frauds have doubled thus making it easier than ever to fall foul of internet identity theft. 

The credit card details, plus the cardholder's name, address, passport and driving license numbers are included in the stolen personal data. 

A new desktop for hardcore gaming has been launched by Alienware, dubbed as the new Area-51 750i desktop. It is quite noticeable from the name itself that the Area-51 750i desktop is built with Nvidia 750i SLI motherboard chipset, providing support for 45nm process-built quad-core processors.

The price tag which the Area-51 750i desktop would carry is expected to start from $1049 (Rs 52,450 approx.), and as one upgrades the components, the price even higher. 

The fears of low placement period for management students in the coming months may prove wrong as the summer placements at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, were encouraging. The placement session ended on Saturday. 

A total of 24% of the batch of 268 students confirmed positions in consulting firms cutting across finance, strategy and marketing functions. The single largest consulting sector recruiter was McKinsey and Co, which took five students. 

Prince of Bahrain, Sheikh Al Khalifa has taken Michael Jackson to court in the UK, claiming the singing sensation has breached his contract. According to the Prince, Jackson accepted up to $7 million as advance for an autobiography, including a joint recording project that involved making a new album for 2 Sea Records (radaronline.com), the Prince’s record label, which was never produced.
 
Denying the claim, Jackson says at he was in a fragile state of mind following his 2006 child molestation case and at the time he signed the deal, he believed the money and presents were simply gifts.
 

According to the Santa Barbara, Calif., District Attorney’s Office, a formal charge for DUI has been laid against Heather Locklear, former star of Melrose Place and who was arrested on 27th September in Montecito, following a 911 call made by a paparazzo reporting Locklear was ‘driving erratically’, who then took proceeded to take photographs of the star and her arrest, selling them later through an intermediary to TMZ.com, a celebrity news site for $27,500.
 

New York - US stocks rallied at day's end Tuesday as energy and technology shares led the way and investors snapped up bargain basement prices.

The three major indices closed up despite a drop in confidence among homebuilders that was the lowest since record-keeping began in 1985, Bloomberg financial news service reported.

Hewlett-Packard Co jumped 14 per cent as earnings topped analysts' estimates, while Exxon Mobil Corp climbed more than 4 per cent.

Washington  - Barack Obama spoke with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday as the president-elect continues to return phone calls from leaders congratulating him on winning the White House.

The Obama transition team did not disclose details of Obama's conversation with Abbas.

Obama has vowed that he will continue to work for Israeli- Palestinian peace. He telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert two days after the November 4 election.

Washington  - US president-elect Barack Obama has selected lawyer Eric Holder to become the top law enforcement officer in his administration, US media reported Tuesday.

Holder has accepted the offer to serve as attorney general and his final approval is pending a vetting process by the Obama transition team, CNN and Newsweek magazine reported.

Holder served as deputy attorney general in former president Bill Clinton's administration, the second highest position in the Justice Department.

Gaza City - Hamas threatened Tuesday to call off a five-month-old Gaza truce, after Israel kept up its near-total closure of the strip for the 14th consecutive day in response to ongoing rocket attacks.

A spokesman for the radical Islamist movement that rules Gaza called on all Palestinian militant factions active in Gaza to meet and reach a joint decision on whether to continue with the truce or break it off.

New York  - The UN General Assembly's human-rights committee on Tuesday adopted a protocol giving people rights to housing, food, water and sanitation, and holding governments responsible for the lack of such essentials.

The human-rights committee, known as Third Committee, adopted the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights without a vote. Amnesty International praised the move.

Los Angeles  - Mickey Mouse marked his 80th birthday Tuesday, but those expecting a big party were disappointed.

There were no special events planned for the world's favourite rodent at any of Disney's theme parks in the US, though one woman in the Seattle area did hold a party for herself and Mickey because their birthdays fall on the same day.

Cairo  - Egyptian Minister of Culture Farouq Hosni and his Spanish counterpart Cesar Antonio Molina opened the 32nd Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) late Tuesday.

Fireworks welcomed an array of international stars as they walked this year's shiny red carpet. British actress-producer Julia Ormond, Elvis Presley's ex-wife Priscilla Presley, Oscar winning star Goldie Hawn and her partner Golden Globe nominee Kurt Russell were joined by renowned actor Omar Sharif, the honorary president of the festival.

Bogota  - Heavy rains have caused 22 deaths in Colombia since September, while seven people remained missing and at least 500,000 people have suffered damage to their property, the Red Cross said Tuesday.

Carlos Marquez, director of the Red Cross' National Rescue department in Colombia, said the rain - set to persist until mid- December - has affected 199 municipalities in
24 of the country's 32 regions.

Marquez said flooding and mudslides as a result of the rain have completely destroyed 400 homes and damaged 38,820 others.

Paris  - Zimbabwe's embattled prime-minister-designate Morgan Tsvangirai Tuesday charged that entrenched Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe had denied him a passport, forcing him to travel on special documents through Europe.

"It is really ridiculous that the prime minister of a country has no passport," Tsvangirai said in Paris. "I hope that this changes soon."

Putting their expertise of the homegrown cryogenic technology for rockets to use, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) scientists have successfully developed a project which will further enhance their reputation - hydrogen fuel cells to power an automobile bus.

After two years of tedious efforts, the scientists are now readying for the fuel cells to be fitted into a bus. In fact, the first proto-model of the bus is already assembled and is expected to hit the road by next year.

Wellington  - German tourist Julia Jahn, 20, kept telling herself she was too young to die as she struggled for five hours to keep her head above water after her kayak became trapped on a New Zealand river, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.

"I was thinking I want to survive. I'm still young. I don't want to die, so I had such a big will to live," Jahn, from Bavaria, told the Dominion Post as she talked about Friday's ill-fated kayak trip in the wilderness of the North Island's Whanganui River.