News

IndianExpress: After affecting hundreds of people across the country, chikungunya , the viral fever caused by mosquito bites from the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, which had till now skipped the city, is here. Patients suffering from the fever have been reported from at least two areas in the city. Doctors in Bhavani Peth and Bibvewadi, who have seen several cases, have got the diagnosis confirmed from the National Institute of Virology (NIV).

IndianExpress: Continuing his tirade against the ruling party, District Guardian Minister Ajit Pawar on Monday announced, ‘‘If the NCP fails to deliver in two years after coming to power in the Pune Municipal Corporation, the party’s corporators will resign.’’

Addressing a conference of slum-dwellers at Ganesh Kala Krida Manch on new guidelines for Slum Rehabilitation Project, Pawar took a dig at the Congress, which has been receiving criticism from all quarters for bad road condition, saying, ‘‘The NCP will ensure that Pune roads remain chakachak even if there is excessive rainfall.’’

IndianExpress: A gang of 10 dacoits used sharp weapons and screwdrivers to attack a family inside their second floor flat at Agarwal Gardens housing society in Hadapsar on Sunday. Three persons, one of them a teenaged girl, and a watchman were injured in the attack .

The injured are Hemant Dhanaji Chaudhary, 25-year-old owner of an electronic gadget shop, his nephew Rakesh (16), niece Mamta (17) and society watchman Bhanulal Pawar (60).

IndianExpress: This one hopes to be an initiative to ward off the stigma that has been plaguing India for quite some time now. The Wake-up Pune campaign that will be organised by over 20 NGOs in Pune from November 26 to December 5 hopes to create awareness on HIV/AIDS all over the city. The plan of action includes talks, street plays and awareness programmes across various places like bus stops, markets, rickshaw stands and educational institutions, to name a few.

IndianExpress: Soon after the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) took an aggressive stand against the city unit of the Congress, cracks have begun developing in the Congress fort. Congress corporators Madhukar Jakkal and former City Improvement Committee chairman Dipak alias Baba Bodke on Monday joined the NCP.

Hours before Jakkal and Bodke joined the NCP at a function attended by District Guardian Minister Ajit Pawar, Jakkal announced that he had submitted the resignation of his post on October 13. Bodke has not yet resigned from the post of corporator.

BetaNews: Microsoft is preparing to launch bots for Windows Live Messenger called Agents, with which users can interact and retrieve information. The service stems from an acquisition of Colloquis that the Redmond company announced Thursday.

Colloquis provides automated support to businesses that uses natural language processing to respond to customer requests. The company’s Automated Service Agent service is currently employed by Cingular, Comcast, Cox, Time Warner and a number of other companies.

Microsoft will re-brand that Colloquis offering as Windows Live Service Agents, which will function as a Web-based application and augment the company’s Microsoft Customer Care Framework. Xbox will be the first group at Microsoft to utilize Windows Live Service Agents as a support offering for gamers.

News.com: Microsoft is investigating a report of a new, yet-to-be-fixed security vulnerability in PowerPoint, the company said late last week.

Sample attack code that exploits the vulnerability has already been released on the Internet, a Microsoft representative wrote on a corporate blog. Use of the code in an attack could cause a complete system compromise, according to Microsoft.