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Google News ::KENNEDY SPACE CENTER The crew of space shuttle Discovery has arrived at the Kennedy Space Center, a day later than planned because of Tropical Storm Alberto.

The seven crewmembers will participate in several days of dress rehearsals in preparation for a July launch. The rehearsals include a practice launch countdown, an exercise to practice escaping from the launch pad and instruction on using emergency equipment.

Shuttle Commander Steve Lindsey says he and his crew “are optimistic that early July looks good.”

Top NASA managers plan to meet at the space center Friday and Saturday to decide whether to give the launch a final green light and to pick a launch date.
 

India Times:BANGALORE: Infosys Technologies will decide in a month’s time who will don the role of chief mentor, a position currently held by its chairman N R Narayana Murthy.

Murthy who will turn 60 on August 20, 2006 will no more be associated with Infosys in an executive role, going by its corporate governance regulations. He is, however, expected to continue as the company’s non-executive chairman.

At the 25th AGM of Infosys Technologies here on Saturday, he said, “My commitment to Infosys will continue and the future decision will be decided when the board meets on July 11.” Murthy said: “I will be thrilled and privileged if the board asks me to continue as non-executive chairman while the role of chief mentor would be going to a smarter person.”

Beta News: A worm that is exploiting a flaw within Yahoo Mail is currently making its way through the service, security firm Symantec warned on Monday. However, Yahoo has since offered a patch for the flaw, which it says affected only a vulnerability of its customers.

Called “Yamanner,” the worm took advantage of a JavaScript issue within the client that affects all versions except for the current beta. It comes hidden in an e-mail titled “New Graphic Site” that when opened launches the worm.

From there, the worm spreads itself to all on the user’s Yahoo contact list, along with sending those e-mail addresses to a remote server. In its advisory, Symantec said it believed this would later be used to spam those addresses.
Symantec said it was too early to judge whether or not the attackers would attempt to alter the worm so it could infect other Web-based e-mail systems.

Reuters:SAN FRANCISCO - Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) on Tuesday warned of eight “critical” security flaws in its Windows operating system and Office software that could allow attackers to take control of a computer.

Microsoft, whose Windows operating system runs on 90 percent of the world’s computers, issued patches to fix the problems as part of its monthly security bulletin. It was the biggest such update since February 2005.

The company issued a total of 12 patches that address 21 security holes and cover problems in its Windows, Internet Explorer, Word, Powerpoint and Exchange Server products, security experts said.

The world’s biggest software maker defines a flaw as “critical” when the vulnerability could allow a damaging Internet worm to replicate without the user doing anything to the machine.

Indian Express:  IT was a clear message sent out by Nasscom president Kiran Karnik: If Pune has to retain its status as the preferred destination for IT industry, it has to put its infrastructure in order. Pointing out that Pune was going the Bangalore way, on a day-long visit to the city to participate in the Nasscom’s National Product Summit on Tuesday, Karnik said: ‘‘Pune is picking up demand and many companies are coming here. But the city does not know how to cope with the physical ecosystem required to meet with the increased demand.’’

He said while the country was adept at dealing with problems of shortage, it did not seem to know how to cope with the problem of plenty.

The IT industry works 24×7. What stops the authorities or private agencies from putting a team on the job and completing the work in time,’’ he asked.

Giving instances of the University Road and the Airport Road, Karnik said: ‘‘Pass by the roads to the airport or the university and you see work happening. These things are going on for years and there seems to be no deadline for any projects.’’

 Indian Express:IN a shocking incident, three youths from Nigdi area allegedly abducted a 15-year-old girl, took her to a lodge in Chinchwad and raped her.

Police said the victim lives with her mother in Nigdi area. Her sister had called up their mother on Friday saying she was to go to Yashvantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital for medical check up and asked the mother to accompany her. Since the mother had other work, she asked her daughter to accompany her elder sister to the hospital.
 
Police said the housewife along with the victim on Saturday morning set out for the hospital. They had just left home when three acquaintances Nagesh Tanaji Jadhav, Dhanaji Tupe and Ashok offered them a lift to the hospital.

The trio waited outside the hospital till the two sisters completed medical examination and offered to take them back to Nigdi. While the victim, Nagesh Jadhav and Ashok rode on a motorbike, her sister rode on Dhanaji’s motorbike. Instead of taking the victim to Nigdi, Nagesh and Ashok whisked her away to a lodge in Chinchwad.

 Meanwhile, the victim’s sister suspected a foul play and confronted Dhanaji who, in turn, took her to the lodge where the victim had been taken. The youths threatened them with dire consequences if they approach the police

Indian Express:UNIVERSITY of Pune’s (UoP) ambitious Vision 2020 programme was principally approved by the UoP senate on Tuesday evening not withstanding opposition from most of the members.

Acting vice-chancellor Ratnakar Gaikwad urged the members to look into the developmental aspect. He said, ‘‘The programme is our attempt of taking the university on the path of development and we require your support and encouragement in this venture.’’
 
The Vision 2020 document entails certain important initiatives such as establishing a student-friendly facilitation centre, bank within the university premises, eco-friendly mass transit systems, filling up the vacant faculty posts, establish chairs for eminent scientists, ensuring transparency in the selection processes for PhD fellowhips, creating virtual classrooms on campus.

With a total budget outlay of Rs 2560 crore, the programme will be reviewed in the year 2010 and after then every third year.

 Indian Express:UNION HRD Minister Arjun Singh’s plan to introduce quota system in unaided deemed universities will lead to separate batches for ‘open’ merit students and other backward classes (OBC) students. The reason: To bridge the intellectual disparities between the two batches, according to S B Mujumdar, Chancellor of Symbiosis

International Educational Centre (deemed university), who has given his suggestion to the University Grants Commission.

‘‘It is imperative to upgrade their skills. The OBC students will have to improve their language skills. From the second year onwards both OBC and general category students will be brought together,’’ he says.

However, the separate batches will be only for a year. Pune has three unaided deemed universities — DY Patil,Bharati Vidyapeeth and Symbiosis. All of them had told Pune Newsline that bringing in reservation would lead to increase in fees of general category students.

Indian Express:WHEN British teacher Will Randall went back home after a two-year stint in Pune, the experiences of his stay,

the time he spent in an orphanage at Dapodi and the impressions of the people in the city resulted in him sitting down to write a book Indian Summer.
‘‘I was here between 2000 and 2001 and though I had intended to stay a while in Mumbai, the sheer scale of the

city and the heat soon got to me,’’ Randall, who is back in the UK, said. The slow pace of life in the city suitedRandall and he decided to stay on.

But it was sheer coincidence that took Randall to Saraswati Anath Shikshan Ashram situated in a slum atDapodi and once he visited the ashram, he decided to stay and help them out.

‘‘It was all the children that I met who inspired me with their innate goodness, honesty and hard work. I will neverforget them,’’ Randall says.

As for the staff and children of ashram, though he left them five years ago, they just cannot forget the caring Willbhaiya who had visited them in Summer of 2000.‘‘He used to teach English and had even put up a play for the children,’’ says Devidas Lakshman Suravase, thepresident of the orphanage.

Randall’s future plans: He will soon be going to the US to become a private investigator