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IndianExpress: On Sunday evening when after 50 hours, six-year-old Prince was rescued from a 60-feet pit in a village in Haryana in full media glare, closer home in Pune it brought back memories of two-and-a-half-year-old Shweta who went through a similar ordeal over a month ago. The only difference between the two was away from the flashing bulbs and cameras, unnoticed to the world, Shweta was rescued in three hours by the Pune Fire Force.

It was on June 13 that Shweta, a construction labourer’s daughter, while playing fell into a 250-feet pit dug for borewell near Phursungi and got stuck at 25 feet. With the narrow stretch not allowing the use of a ladder, she was rescued using a rope attached with a hook.

As the rescue efforts were beamed into the living rooms live from the spot in Haryana, back home in Pune the man who rescued Shweta was closely monitoring the progress. ‘‘I was glued to the television set for the entire day,’’ chief fire officer L N Raut said.

IndianExpress: No longer will police officials have to wait for days for the laboratory report to be certain about the nature of drugs seized by them. Now, a narcotic identification kit will help sleuths on the beat identify for the time being the drug within a matter of a few minutes.

Conceptualised by Narcotics Control Bureau, Mumbai, the kit has been developed by Hindustan Antibiotics and National Chemical Laboratory (NCL).

Police inspector Satish Deore of anti-narcotics department of crime branch said that the kit has a chart and bottles filled with various chemicals. A pinch of the narcotic that has been found is to be added to the bottle, which will then change colour due to the reaction of the drug and the chemical. Taking into account the colour change, the nature of the narcotic will be known. He added that the test done with the help of the kit will also help in filing a primary case against the accused. However, the narcotics will have to be sent to the laboratory for detailed tests.

IndianExpress: In a combing operation, nine girls were rescued from Budhwar Peth red light area in the wee hours of Sunday. The raid was carried out at four places and two women have been arrested for allegedly owning the brothels.

A joint team of social security cell of Pune Commissionerate and Faraskhana crime branch undertook the drive between 2:45 am and 3 am on Sunday morning. The rescued girls are reported to be natives of West Bengal.

The arrested — Babita Saila Lama (40) and Ramadevi Gopi Naik (30) — have been booked under sections of the Prevention of Immoral Trafficking Act (PITA) and Indian Penal Code (IPC). The police is yet to arrest two women — Gita Kancha Sharma (45) and Renulal Bahadur Damai. The rescued girls belong to the age-groups of 16 to 27 years. The girls were lured with a promise of being provided a job in Pune and were sold to brothel owners. The Faraskhana police is investigating the case.
 

IndianExpress: The issue of the appointment of a new Vice-Chancellor (VC) for Pune University will come to a head at Raj Bhavan on July 28, when Governor SM Krishna will interview the final four candidates for the coveted post. Yashwantrao Chavan Academy for Development Administration (YASHADA) Director Ratnakar Gaikwad, was acting as the ad-hoc VC of the University for the time being, which had no Pro-Vice Chancellor after the ex-VC, Ashok Kolaskar’s term ended on February 25 this year. The selection process that started in December last year had been fraught with delays. Formulation of the five-member selection committee was stalled after the resignation of some of its members. Even after the new committee was formed, meetings were postponed on various counts, until a meeting was finally scheduled at Mumbai on July 18, where the decision on the final four candidates was taken.

TechWorld.com: Yahoo has signed up the two biggest handset manufacturers to load its Yahoo Go for Mobile services on their phones.

Motorola said it will prominently feature Yahoo Go for Mobile, which includes Yahoo Mail, search, address book and Yahoo Local, on handsets worldwide starting the first half of next year. Motorola did not specify which handsets would get the feature but said it would distribute tens of millions of phones featuring Yahoo Go for Mobile.

Earlier this year, Yahoo said Nokia would sell certain phones with Yahoo Go for Mobile in Europe, Asia and the US

In addition to deals with handset makers, content and search providers like Yahoo and Google have also announced partnerships with mobile operators. 3 Group said last month that some Yahoo services and applications would become available on certain handsets.

TechTree.com: In an advisory on its Web site, Microsoft Corp has warned against a new virus that exploits a vulnerability in its PowerPoint presentation software, allowing hackers to infiltrate computer systems.

PowerPoint 2000, 2002, and 2003 are affected by the vulnerability.

According to Microsoft, the virus is carried out either when the user launches a PowerPoint attachment to an email, or when he/she opens a file provided by the hacker. Users could also be lured to Web pages containing a file exploiting the PowerPoint software.

Once the corrupt PowerPoint file is triggered, the virus installs a keystroke logging system to capture everything typed on the infected machine. Typically, the machine is left open to the hacker installing other malicious programs as well.

Microsoft says it will release a security update to fix this flaw latest by Aug 8, 2006.

Although attacks have been limited so far, the company advises users to be careful while opening or saving PowerPoint files, especially those that turn-up unexpectedly.

ABCNews.com:  There is no question that electronics are taking over our lives. Now, thanks to Panasonic, one television will actually take over your living room.

Measuring 103 inches diagonally — or roughly the size of 7-foot-tall Shaquille O’Neal — Panasonic’s new high-definition plasma TV is the largest available to U.S. consumers.

But the gargantuan monitor arrives at a time when many experts say fewer people in the U.S. are spending the big bucks needed for next generation TVs. And, with a price tag of $69,999.95, it’s safe to say that this TV will not be flying off the shelves or saving slumping high-definition TV sales.