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Key Words: Web Hosting

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The U.S. House of Representatives approved on Saturday a civilian nuclear agreement that will put an end to the three-decade ban on American nuclear trade with India.

    "Today's approval by the House of the U.S.-India nuclear cooperation agreement furthers our countries' strategic relationship while balancing nuclear non-proliferation concerns and India's growing energy needs," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement.

    "The legislation recognizes India's past support for non-proliferation initiatives and strengthens congressional oversight of any future U.S. decision to assist India's civilian nuclear program," she said.

    The agreement, passed by a 298-117 vote in the House, is yet to be approved by the Senate.

    U.S. President George W. Bush, who met with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here Thursday, said that his administration is working hard for the approval of U.S.-India nuclear agreement.

    "Civil nuclear cooperation between the U.S. and India pursuant to the agreement will offer major strategic and economic benefits to both countries," the White House said in a statement to Congress before the vote.

    Washington and New Delhi reached an agreement on civil nuclear cooperation in March 2006, under which India will get access to U.S. civil nuclear technology on condition that India is to separate nuclear facilities for civilian and military use and open its nuclear facilities for inspection.

    The nuclear deal, considered a key part of Bush's foreign policy legacy, is designed to solidify Washington's relationship with a fast-emerging economic power.

Key Words: NUCLEAR DEAL

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If everything goes as planned, any of the days starting October 19th to 28th would be remembered as a red-letter day for us Indians. Our very first, homespun lunar probe, Chandrayaan is all set to make its first voyage to our nearest celestial body -- the Moon on these tentative dates -- depending on the weather conditions then. If the weather plays spoil sport, the mission will need to be postponed to December. In any case, a successful mission will no doubt put India in the elite club of counties who have been able to send missions to moon.

Chandrayaan is still undergoing tests and is yet to clear the vibration and acoustic tests, which it would be subjected to later this week. These tests will simulate the conditions that the probe will need to bear at the tine of launch. These include high-temperatures, vibrations during take off and not to mention, the tremendous noise that is expected of a typical rocket launch.

Chandrayaan will carry as many as 11 payloads -- five from India, three from the European Space Agency (ESA), one from the Bulgarian Space Agency (BSA) and two from NASA, making it a truly global initiative. The two-year mission will be invaluable as the Chandrayaan is programmed to orbit the Lunar surface and digitally map it. It will also send information on the traces of the composition of the lunar surface apart from looking for atomic minerals such as thorium and uranium. The probe is also equipped with high-resolution cameras which could help shed some light on the existence of water on the moon.

A modified (rather upgraded) PSLV launch vehicle will be used to transport the probe to the lunar orbit. Due to the modifications, the PSLV C-11 will have a lift-off weight of 316 tonnes, which is much higher than the "standard" 294-ton version. Additionally, the payload capacity too has been increased from 1600 kg to 1800 kg. The PSLV has been the most successful launch vehicle for ISRO till date. It also holds the record for sending as many as 10 satellites simultaneously during its last mission. This time round, it is all set to break its own record by carrying 11 different payloads.

Undoubtedly, the Indian space program has come a long way since its initial stages when the first rocket transporter happened to be a bicycle, which carried the 9 kilo rocket to the "launch pad"! That was back in 1963 when visionaries like Vikram Sarabhai and APJ Abdul Kalam laid the foundation of what has become one of the greatest success stories of India.

Key Words: EXPEDITION

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Key Words: Clickaudit

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The Wall Street Journal is borrowing elements from popular Internet hangouts like Facebook as it seeks to boost usage.

WSJ.com, one of the few news sites to restrict many of its stories to paying subscribers, is changing its layout to help nonpaying visitors navigate and identify free, ad-supported content. Those visitors will see a different home page from users who sign in as subscribers.

The new "Journal Community" is coming Tuesday as part of the site's first major revision since 2002. There, paying subscribers create personal profile pages with their real names, job details, interests and photo, much as users can at Facebook and the professional-networking site LinkedIn.

Community members will be able to comment on individual stories, create discussion groups on specific topics and ask one another for advice on such topics as starting small businesses or finding a place to take clients during a business trip, say, in Prague.

The Journal's online audience has been growing fast, and nonpaying visitors make up the lion's share. WSJ.com has 4.7 million visitors in July, nearly twice July 2007's total of 2.4 million, according to comScore Inc. Only about 5 percent of the site's users are paying subscribers, the Journal said.

By embracing social-networking tools popular elsewhere, the Journal hopes to draw even more people to its site more often for longer stays. Alan Murray, a deputy managing editor who oversees the site's editorial operations, said the Journal can offer an unmatched community of well-heeled business executives.

"There's no technology here that you can't get at other places," Murray said. "What we have that you can't get anywhere else is the Journal community, the Journal subscriber base."

Although news organizations have started to embrace blogs and tools to share and view content, they have lagged behind companies that originated on the Internet, including Facebook and MySpace, which was bought by the Journal's owner, News Corp., after the social-networking service rocketed in popularity.

Some examples of newspapers jumping into social networking include The Bakersfield Californian, which lets visitors create profiles, blogs and networks of friends, and The New York Times, which is testing TimesPeople for readers to see what their friends are reading and recommending. Journal sister site MarketWatch.com also allows visitors to designate friends and tag stories with keywords for easier discovery.

"But in general, it's still the same old story, where the newspaper industry has gone slowly in this interactivity thing," said Steve Outing, a columnist with Editor and Publisher magazine. "They are making some strides, but overall it's pretty slow going."

Although news sites shouldn't try to duplicate what social networks already do well, Outing said, they risk losing users' attention if they don't get more aggressive about embracing the latest tools.

The Journal is trying to do just that.

Besides adding the networking function, it's looking for ways to merge its community with those elsewhere. And Facebook and MySpace, among others, are developing tools to make that possible.

"We believe that in the future, social networks are going to be an important means of distributing content and of spreading news, and we want to be a part of those networks," Murray said.

WSJ.com hopes to increase the quality of discussions by insisting that users post over their real names — as verified against billing and subscription information. Other social networks that ask for real names don't have good ways to verify them, and news sites that allow pseudonyms have found discussions often degenerate into vicious personal attacks.

Subscribers can search for and contact others, but they won't be able to declare anyone a top friend, as they can on other sites. Nor are the Journal's personal profiles meant to include for party photos, games or music.

The Journal plans to eventually open the social-networking features to nonpaying visitors, though they will need to figure out how to verify identities.

The separate home page for nonpaying visitors will emphasize the free content. Off-limit items will be marked with a small icon of a key. That's partly to minimize user frustration — before visitors had to click first, only to find the item unavailable. More importantly, the icon will show users what they are missing and encourage them to start paying.

The site is being structured to make it easier for search engines to direct traffic to individual stories, and once there, a new tabbed layout will help readers find related video, photos, reader comments and other articles. The new design will also let the Journal try out new ad formats.

The mix of free and for-pay content isn't changing, though the Journal says it is expanding its coverage areas in the coming months and will generally make those articles free.

Key Words: SOCIAL SITES

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Sri Lanka's air force shot down an aircraft from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam during an attack on a military base in the north, the government said.

The plane was brought down over the Mullaitivu district during a ``failed mission'' involving two Tamil Tiger aircraft early today, the Defense Ministry said. Tamil Tiger ground forces also attacked the base at Vavuniya and were driven off after 10 soldiers and a police officer were killed, the ministry said.

LTTE aircraft targeted the military headquarters for the Wanni region, based in Vavuniya, TamilNet reported, saying the raid took place at 2:30 a.m. Sri Lankan time. Tamil Tiger ground forces attacked the town for two hours, it said.

The Tamil Tigers are under siege in their last bases in Wanni after losing control of the east to the army in July 2007, the worst defeat in their 25-year campaign for a separate homeland. It is the first time the military has said it destroyed an aircraft from the LTTE's air wing, which the army estimates consisted of five planes.

``Terrorists launched a pre-dawn ground assault with artillery fire and an air raid with the intention of causing severe damage to air force assets,'' the ministry said in a statement on its Web site. The bodies of 10 rebels were found when the attack was repulsed, it said.

Two bombs dropped by the planes hit the officers' mess area and an office complex, the army said.

Explosions Heard

At least 11 explosions were heard in Vavuniya, TamilNet said, citing reports from the town. There were no indications that any LTTE aircraft was shot down, it cited unidentified civilian officials as saying.

Air force jets attacked two targets in Wanni's Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts early today, TamilNet said.

Sri Lanka's army is driving the Tamil Tigers back toward their headquarters in Kilinochchi. They fought a battle last week after troops captured the town of Mallavi, which served as an LTTE administrative center in the region. The army said more than 70 rebels were killed, while the LTTE said a similar number of soldiers died.

The United Nations said it's withdrawing its aid agency personnel from Sri Lanka's northern region following a government order to leave before a major military offensive, Agence France- Presse said. A timetable for the complete withdrawal of all UN aid workers is still to be determined and relocations will begin this week, AFP cited the UN as saying.

Jungle Terrain

The army estimates the LTTE still has about 5,000 personnel. Some defense analysts have put the figure as high as 10,000 and say the Tigers are able to roam freely in most of the 4,000 square kilometers (1,600 square miles) of jungle terrain comprising the Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts.

The LTTE said last month its air unit carried out a successful raid on the headquarters of the navy in the eastern port of Trincomalee, according to TamilNet. The aircraft dropped two bombs on a navy camp after being driven away from the dockyards, the Defense Ministry said.

The LTTE revealed it had an air wing in March 2007 when propeller-driven aircraft flew 200 kilometers (125 miles) from their base in the north to attack a military installation near the capital, Colombo. A second raid took place on an oil storage site and gas plant near the city in April that year.

Last October, rebel aircraft raided an air force base at Anuradhapura in the north, supporting a ground attack by the LTTE's Black Tigers unit, which is used for suicide missions.

Thousands Flee

The army offensives and bombing raids have forced more than 113,000 people from their homes in northern villages, the LTTE's Peace Secretariat said last month. The group has accused the air force of dropping bombs in civilian areas and says the army operations amount to genocide, charges the government denies.

Sri Lanka yesterday rejected criticism by Amnesty International that civilians are being ignored as the army tries to defeat the LTTE in the north.

``The Sri Lankan state continues to provide and facilitate humanitarian assistance to citizens caught up in the conflict,'' the government said yesterday. The LTTE is refusing to allow civilians to move to areas captured by the army, the government said in a statement.

Sri Lanka told aid agencies yesterday to quit the Wanni region because their safety couldn't be guaranteed while fighting is centered there, AFP cited Mahinda Samarasinghe, the disaster management minister, as saying in Colombo.

Key Words: Sri Lanka And Tigers

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The US on Tuesday ruled out the possibility of entering into a civil nuclear deal with Pakistan, rejecting apparent demands by China in this regard.

"I don't think there is one," US Ambassador David C Mulford said when asked about the possibility of Washington having a civil nuclear deal with Islamabad on the lines of Indo-US agreement.

Ever since negotiations started on the Indo-US nuclear deal in July 2005, Pakistan has been pleading for a similar agreement citing parity with India.

China has lately started taking up Pakistan's case in a veiled manner.

At the meeting of Nuclear Suppliers Group in Vienna last week to consider waiver for India, a Chinese representative had said the 45-nation grouping should address similar ‘aspirations’ of other countries too.

Though Mulford did not elaborate, the US feels that Pakistan cannot be treated on par with India in the civil nuclear field considering its bad track record in this area.

Pakistan is known to be a source of nuclear proliferation, with even its former chief scientist A Q Khan being found guilty of indulging in this act.

To a question on China's negative role at the NSG, Mulford refused to comment, merely saying ‘In the end, they did the right thing’.

China, which had assured India that it will not create problems for the waiver at NSG, had tried to block the initiative during the grouping's meeting in Vienna last week before coming around on the issue

Key Words: Nuclear Deal

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Stocks rose in Europe and Asia, sending the MSCI World Index to its biggest gain since April, on speculation the U.S. government's takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will shore up the mortgage market. U.S. index futures climbed, while Treasuries fell the most in two months.

UBS AG, the European bank hardest hit by subprime-related losses, and Mizuho Financial Group Inc., Japan's biggest lender by assets, surged more than 10 percent after Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the government will provide short-term funding to the two biggest U.S. mortgage-finance companies and purchase debt backed by home loans. Citigroup Inc. climbed 10 percent.

The takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ``is the beginning of the end of the problem,'' Lucy MacDonald, the London-based chief investment officer of global equities at RCM Ltd., which has $100 billion under management, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. ``We'll see a floor put under financial shares.''

The MSCI World added 1.7 percent to 1,291.13 at 1:46 p.m. in London as all 10 industry groups except for health-care companies rose. Europe's Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index and the MSCI Asia Pacific Index each climbed the most since January, advancing 3.9 percent and 4.6 percent, respectively. Futures on the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 2.8 percent.

The London Stock Exchange said a computer fault caused the longest halt of trading in more than eight years.

U.S. government notes fell, pushing 10-year yields up by the most since July 11, as investors moved to higher-yielding assets and speculated the Treasury may boost debt sales.

Paulson's Plan

Fannie Mae fell 49 percent in Germany and Freddie Mac lost 50 percent after the Treasury's plan eliminated their dividends and left common stockholders last in line for any claims.

More than $17 trillion in global equity value has been wiped out since October as the biggest surge in mortgage defaults in at least three decades sparked more than $500 billion of writedowns and losses at banks from Citigroup to UBS to Mizuho. All 10 industries in the MSCI World retreated in 2008 as a drop in lending magnified the global economic slowdown.

Concern that failures by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which make up almost half the U.S. home-loan market, would spark further losses at financial institutions around the world helped send the MSCI World to the lowest level in two years last week.

Paulson and Federal Housing Finance Agency Director James Lockhart yesterday placed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in a government-operated conservatorship. The Treasury may purchase up to $200 billion of stock in the firms to keep them solvent.

Banks Rally

``This is a big step to improving the value of assets and liquidity in the financial system,'' said Brian Barish, who helps oversee about $8 billion as president of Denver-based Cambiar Investors LLC. ``But I don't think an explosive rally would be justified. A lot of the problems are still out there and this isn't going to change that.''

UBS climbed 12 percent to 25.02 francs. Deutsche Bank AG, Germany's largest bank, advanced 8.4 percent to 61.44 euros. Mizuho rose 12 percent, while Macquarie Group Ltd., Australia's largest investment bank, rose 15 percent.

Banks and insurers accounted for the 10 biggest gains in the Dow Jones Stoxx 50 Index, a gauge of the largest European companies.

``There's only one story that means anything as the new trading week gets under way and that's the nationalization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,'' said Matt Buckland, a trader at CMC Markets in London. The takeover ``should take a lot of uncertainty out of the market in one quick move.''

LSE Trading Halt

Citigroup, the biggest U.S. bank by assets, climbed 10 percent to $20.97. JPMorgan Chase & Co., the third-largest, increased 2.6 percent to $40.62 in Germany.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year note rose as much as 15 basis points to 3.85 percent when the New York Times first reported the government was planning to take over the two largest buyers of home loans. It was recently at 3.80 percent, according to bond broker BGCantor Market Data.

London Stock Exchange Group Plc, Europe's oldest independent exchange, said a computer fault caused the longest halt of trading since April 2000, when a computer problem shut the exchange for eight hours.

``We are currently preparing to re-enable connectivity,'' the London-based exchange said on its Web site today. No orders can be entered and no trade executions will occur, the LSE said. The exchange said it will resume trading in a ``controlled way,'' without estimating how long that will take. The fault has left some traders without prices for more than two hours.

Total SA, Europe's third-biggest oil company, gained 3 percent to 45.65 euros. Eni SpA, the region's fourth-largest, advanced 2.4 percent to 20.73 euros.

Commodities Advance

Oil rebounded from a five-month low as Hurricane Ike swept across Cuba, delaying resumption of crude production in the Gulf of Mexico. Crude for October delivery rose 1.9 percent to $108.19 a barrel in New York.

Raw-materials producers in the Stoxx 600 climbed 5.1 percent as a group after copper jumped 1.5 percent in New York. Gold, tin and zinc also rose.

Boliden AB, Europe's second-largest zinc producer, gained 6.1 percent to 38.1 Swedish kronor.

Air France-KLM Group, Europe's biggest airline, said passenger traffic rose 2.8 percent last month, led by travel to the Americas. The shares added 2.9 percent to 17.16 euros.

Key Words: Business

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Ike smashed into northeastern Cuba on a course that may take the hurricane through the center of the island and into the Gulf of Mexico, threatening U.S. oil installations hit by Gustav a week ago.

``The destruction in Cuba is going to be extensive,'' Matthew Rinde, meteorologist at Accuweather.com, said today in a telephone interview from State College, Pennsylvania. ``Once it gets back out over the water it should restrengthen and that should be as early as Wednesday morning.''

The system remained at Category 2 on the five-step Saffir- Simpson scale of intensity, with sustained winds of 160 kilometers (100 miles) per hour, after weakening earlier today from Category 3, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said on its Web site at 8 a.m. Miami time. Ike may weaken further while over land, forecasters said. The system was centered over the city of Camaguey and moving west at 23 kph.

Ike killed 47 people in Haiti before forcing the evacuation of more than 800,000 people in Cuba, Agence France-Presse said. Both nations were recovering from Hurricane Gustav. The hurricane center's five-day track for Ike shows the system moving toward coastal waters near the Louisiana-Texas border.

Crude oil rose 2.7 percent from a five-month low as producers delayed resuming operations in the region that were stalled by Gustav.

Warnings, Watches

The Cuban government issued a hurricane warning for the provinces of Guantanamo west through Matanzas. A tropical-storm warning and a hurricane watch were in effect for the provinces of La Habana, Ciudad de Habana, Pinar del Rio and the Isle of Youth.

In Florida, a tropical-storm warning and a hurricane watch were declared for the Keys from Ocean Reef south to the Dry Tortugas, the center said. A tropical-storm watch was issued for southwestern Florida's Gulf waters from East Cape Sable to Bonita Beach.

The Bahamas maintained a tropical-storm warning for Andros and Ragged islands, while a tropical-storm watch was in effect for Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.

A warning means tropical-storm or hurricane conditions are expected within 24 hours. A watch means the conditions are possible within 36 hours.

Louisiana Emergency

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency yesterday in preparation for Ike. New Orleans residents were warned to prepare to evacuate again, after orders to leave as Gustav approached last week, three years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city. New Orleans was spared the worst of Gustav.

``Hurricane Ike may impact the coastal parishes of Louisiana with hurricane strength winds, wave surges, high tides, torrential rain and tornado activity,'' Jindal said in a statement on the state's Web site. ``The storm may make landfall on the Louisiana coast on or about Sept. 13, 2008, with the expectation that hurricane-force winds will reach the Louisiana coast prior to landfall.''

The storm may dump as much as 51 centimeters (20 inches) of rain on parts of Cuba, the center said. ``These rains are likely to cause life-threatening flash floods and mud slides over mountainous terrain,'' the center said.

Gustav destroyed western Cuba's main crops, bananas, citrus, avocadoes and corn, the official Granma news service said. Agriculture was further hit as hundreds of thousands of farm animals were killed, Granma said.

Haiti Hit

Ike brought more rain to Haiti, which was hit by Hurricane Gustav and Tropical Storm Fay last month before Hanna swept through last week.

``The rains from Ike have made it even more difficult for aid workers to get into some of the worst-flooded areas,'' Wesley Charles, the national director of World Vision in Haiti, said in an e-mailed statement. ``People are becoming increasingly desperate.''

In nearby Grand Turk and North Caicos Islands, initial reports show 80 percent of homes suffered damage from Ike, according to Risk Management Solutions Inc., which quantifies risk for insurance companies.

``A number of houses lost their roofs, as well as a prison,'' said Stephen Russell, commander of the National Emergency Management Agency in Nassau, the Bahamas. ``On Great Inagua, many homes also lost roofs and all phone lines are down.''

The British naval vessel HMS Iron Duke was dispatched to assist in relief efforts in the Turks and Caicos Islands, a U.K. overseas territory, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported, citing the ship's captain.

Death Toll

The death toll from the four storms has risen to at least 600 in Haiti, AFP said. As many as 600,000 people may need assistance in Haiti, the United Nations humanitarian affairs chief John Holmes said.

Cuba yesterday urged the U.S. to ease its trade embargo and open private credit lines for food imports into the island in the wake of Gustav, AFP reported.

President George W. Bush yesterday declared a state of emergency for Florida, authorizing federal disaster assistance, the White House said. Officials yesterday urged the 80,000 residents of the Keys to leave for the mainland.

``I haven't evacuated in 15 years,'' David Black, 47, a clerk at the Heron House hotel in Key West, said in a phone interview yesterday. ``It's less trouble to just weather the hurricane and if you go to Miami or Orlando, you can get hit by the storm you're running from.''

Oil Production

Energy producers reported that personnel from 10 rigs and 202 production platforms have been evacuated, the Minerals Management Service said yesterday on its Web site. There are about 717 manned production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.

Most energy output in the Gulf has been halted since Hurricane Gustav ripped through the area and made landfall in Louisiana on Sept. 1. The Gulf is home to more than a quarter of U.S. oil production.

Officials in Florida's Monroe County, where the Keys are located, urged tourists to leave the islands yesterday, Chuck Mulligan, a spokesman with the Tallahassee-based state Division of Emergency Management, said yesterday.

Officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency told reporters in Washington yesterday they had positioned supplies of food and water in the Gulf states and are ready to help.

Far to the east of Ike, the remnants of Tropical Storm Josephine produced showers and thunderstorms over the Atlantic and had a low potential to regenerate into a cyclone, the hurricane center said.

Key Words: Lke

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