Rahm Emanuel – Democratic Congressman from Illinois, and a veteran of the Clinton administration - has accepted the President-elect Barack Obama’s offer to become the new White House chief of staff. Informing Obama of his decision on Thursday, Emanuel said he would step down as the fourth-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives to help guide the Obama administration.

Even though reports of agitation between the McCain and Palin camps bubbled up in the final weeks of the campaign, as Barack Obama began pulling away and the GOP duo was unable to regain the momentum, when the defeated team of McCain and Palin split up in Arizona on Wednesday, the personal differences were starkly visible.  

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the salmonella infections from contaminated dry pet food that sickened at least 79 people could be dangerous. The suspected salmonella infection from a pet food plant in Pennsylvania has prompted the closure of the plant and a recall of the affected brands.

The salmonella outbreak is of a rare strain known as Salmonella enterica serotype Schwarzengrund, the CDC said, which causes bloody diarrhea and can make pet food handlers, especially the very young and very old sick.

Scorching knocks of 88 and 51 by Nicky Boje and Stuart Binny helped Hyderabad Heroes to defeat Mumbai Champs by 79-runs in the ICL 20s Indian Championship match at Tau Devi Lal Stadium.

Batting first, Heroes piled 214 runs, the highest score in the tournament. Chasing this imposing total, Champs could manage only 135 runs losing six wickets in their allotted 20 overs.

Tata-owned steel giant Corus has decided to axe 400 jobs at its distribution unit due to global economic downturn.

The proposed job cuts will be spread across United Kingdom, comprising 100 in the West Midlands, around 100 in North Wales, 50 in South Wales and 50 in Leeds.

The company stated that its distribution business had been operating in an unstable and irregular market since the start of the year.

Spice Mobiles has launched a new trendy and distinctive metallic designed phone, named S-930 in the Indian market.

Touted to be a multimedia phone, the Spice S 930 comes packed with a virtual keypad and 2 MP Camera with Webcam facility.

The newly launched phone has MP3 player, FM Record & Play and stereo Bluetooth and 2GB expandable memory.

Moreover, the phone permits its users to access the image gallery through a swipe of finger.