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indianexpress: FIVE more incidents of poll related violence and rioting were reported in Pimpri, Yerwada, Khadak and Sahakarnagar areas of the city on Friday night. The counting day was marred by violence, manhandling and stonning specially in Kondhwa where the Shiv Sainiks went on a rampage targeting supporters of the defeated NCP rival Sanjay Lonkar. The police sensing trouble deployed a heavy bandobast in the area with two platoons of State Reserve Police Force and One Striking Force kept on standby to quell the violence. The situation in Kondhwa remained tense on Saturday too, the police said.

Vijay Nandlal Srivastava (30), a resident of Kamgar Nagar, Kharadwadi, Pimpri lodged a complaint with the Pimpri Police saying that he and his friend Vijay Kapse were attacked with sharp weapons and sticks by Satish Bhonsale and twenty other supporters of newly elected corporator Hanumant Bhonsale on Friday night near Laxmi Stores, HA Colony in Pimpri. 
 
In the second incident, Dilip Kachru Gangwane (39), a resident of Chandrama Nagar, Survey No 27, Yerwada in a complaint with the Yerwada police said that Raju alias Ramesh Jagtap, Durgesh Solanki and twenty other supporters beat him for supporting the candidature of Afsar Bhai.

In the third incident, Anil alias Anna Sadashiv Jadhav (24), a social worker and a resident of 54 HP, 894 Lohianagar in a complaint lodged with the Khadak police said that eight persons assaulted him for supporting a rival candidate

indianexpress: HE could well have been Paaya, a character from the latest Madhur Bhandarkar movie Traffic Signal, but the only difference here is it is no reel life. Eight-year-old Mukesh Pawar (name changed) earns Rs 200 a day selling odd items at traffic signals, of which his father allows him to keep Rs 10. When he grows up, Pawar hopes he will be able to keep the whole amount. Introduced to street life even before he could learn to walk, this is the only future Pawar has ever known.

Pawar is among 32 children rescued from various parts of the city as part of the anti-child beggary drive launched jointly by the Department of Women and Child Welfare, the Juvenile Action Police Unit and child rights organisations Childline and Action for the Rights of the Child (ARC). Two weeks since the drive began on January 23, the future of these children, lodged at the observation homes at Shivajinagar and Nana Peth, remains a question mark.

“The drive was carried out on a war footing after the Nithari killings. State Women and Child Welfare Commissioner Ashwani Kumar issued clear directions to verify the credentials of their parents, so that they are not sent back into the wrong hands,” said district officer for the department Mahendra Gaikwad. However, the verification process is complicated, since most of these families live on the footpath and have no documentation to prove their status as parents.

indianexpress: A day after Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) emerged as the single largest party in Pune Municipal Corporation and removed the crutches of Congress as a coalition partner in Pimpri-Chinchwad, district guardian minister Ajit Pawar said merger of Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Transports, proper implementation of Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS), improvement of road conditions and formation of Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) will top the NCP agenda.

Speaking to reporters after addressing a meeting of the 41 newly elected corporators of party in Pune on Saturday morning, Pawar said his party will stake claim to the mayor’s post.

“We need 73 corporators to prove majority in the house. We will take help of independents. Besides, notwithstanding political interests, we will take help of parties that have concern for Pune’s development. NCP leaders including me, power minister Dilip Walse Patil and Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil will meet in Mumbai and take a decision in this regard,” he said.

Explaining NCP’s plan for Pune’s development, Pawar said as the party had got majority in Pimpri-Chinchwad and emerged the single largest party in Pune, it would press for the formation of PMRDA.

“There should be an integrated development approach for Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad. The PMRDA formation is already underway. Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has given his approval. Meetings of officials concerned including the urban development department secretaries, divisional commissioner, district collector and Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad municipal commissioners have already been held. We will take it forward,” he said.

indianexpress: VARIOUS trains plying on Pune-Lonavala-Mumbai section of Central Railways were delayed by at least two hours on Saturday evening as the overhead wires got snapped between Talegaon and Wadgaon railway stations.

A central railways spokesperson said movement of Mumbai bound trains came to standstill as the wires got snapped around 5.45 pm. The repairs could not be completed till 8.15 pm. Traffic of Pune bound trains remained unaffected.

The Pune-Mumbai Intercity Express was stranded at Chinchwad railway station while the Pune-Mumbai Indrayani express and Bangalore-Pune-Ajmer Express were stopped at Pune Railway Station.
 

indianexpress: THE Crime Branch Unit 2 of the city police on Saturday arrested a criminal. The officials recovered one gun and three live cartridges from his possession.

A crime branch team led by Police Inspector SB Ohol nabbed the accused who was identified as Siraj Ismail Sayyad.

Sayyad was a resident of Satav Wadi near Pul Gate. DCP (crime) Anil Kumbhare said, “We were tipped off about the arrival of Siraj at Pul Gate. We then accordingly laid a trap and nabbed him.”

Kumbhare added that Sayyad has two cases of extortion lodged against him. Sayyad’s father is into the real-estate business, Kumbhare said.

indianexpress: NEARLY 150 students from various colleges will don the garb of United Nations delegates and debate on major global issues on February 3 and 4 as part of the Mock United Nations Assembly (MUNA) organised by the Rotary and Rotaract Club of Pune North East (RCPNE).

The MUNA aims at creating international awareness among youngsters by exposing them to the procedures and working of the United Nations to resolve pertinent global issues, and is a simulation of a real UN assembly, wherein students from various institutes represent a given country in teams of three.

The teams represent the policies of the country and debate on various issues ranging from terrorism to drugs. They then try to arrive at a consensus in the form of a written UN resolution drafted by the students themselves.

“This year we have 150 students participating from various colleges including ILS Law College, Nowrosjee and Ness Wadia, Fergusson, Symbiosis Arts, Commerce and Science College, NDA, Mahindra United World College, BMCC, and others,” said MUNA project director Harsh Nangia

techtree: Motorola has signed a comprehensive Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore (IIIT-B) to effectively utilize the results of the research efforts aimed at developing innovative wireless broadband solutions for emerging markets like India.

The company said that it would jointly work with IIIT-B on projects in designated fields of science and technology, collaborate in developing cutting-edge technology innovations and solutions, and conduct research programs.

On this occasion, Chanra Kintala, Director, Motorola India Research Labs, said, “We are happy to be associated with one of India’s leading technological institutes. Through this collaborative effort we intend to advance our research and development and achieve breakthrough technological innovation.”

Adding further, Firdose Vandrevala, Chairman, Motorola India, explained, “The tie-up with IIIT-B reinforces our commitment to India’s telecom revolution. Motorola has already undertaken joint R&D initiatives with other several other leading institutions like IIT Chennai, IIT Mumbai, and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore. And this alliance builds on our collaboration and partnership with Indian research and academic institutions.”

It is also learnt that the focus of the collaboration will be on innovative solutions related to resource and capacity management, appropriate scheduling policies, and quality of service. Currently, high-end research is being undertaken for providing innovative solutions to improve quality of service over WiMax.

technewsworld: Linux users have often complained that even though the vast majority of PC components and peripherals are compatible with Linux, some don’t work at all. Hardware vendors who submit specifications will now receive “a complete and working Linux driver that is added to the main Linux kernel source tree,” according to Greg Kroah-Hartman, a Linux kernel subsystem maintainer.

The Linux community is planning to improve the position of the open source  operating system  by addressing one of the more vexing barriers slowing mainstream adoption: Linux-compatible device drivers. Developers are now offering to provide hardware vendors with the necessary drivers for free.

Drivers create the necessary links between hardware devices and the operating system running the computer on which the devices reside or are connected.

The move is expected to help the OS make deeper inroads into a market wholly dominated by Microsoft’s (Nasdaq: MSFT)  ubiquitous Windows operating systems by encouraging companies to think twice before adopting Redmond’s recently released upgrade, Vista.

technewsworld: In releasing its new SSL VPN solution, Intelligent Application Gateway 2007, Microsoft has set foot into a very popular application market. SSL VPN programs allow users to connect to systems without needing any pre-installed software on their computer. Besides being highly useful to employers and employees, they’ve become useful tools for allowing access to business partners outside the corporation

Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT)  unveiled a new secure sockets layer virtual private networking (SSL VPN) solution Thursday. Intelligent Application Gateway (IAG) 2007 is the fruit of its July 2006 acquisition of Whale Communications.

The Redmond, Wash.-based software maker also announced that it has partnered with Celestix Networks and Network Engines, two appliance manufacturing and distribution companies, in order to offer a new pricing and licensing model that it said will make SSL VPNs more cost-effective for “all small businesses — from small to large enterprises — and for all deployments.”

“Security around remote access should always be a concern for businesses, as it is a well-known attack vector for many different types of exploits,” Victoria Fodale, an analyst at In-Stat, told TechNewsWorld. “And Web-based access is becoming fairly ubiquitous among companies.”

cnn:  Rabid video gamers could get some help keeping in touch with the outside world this weekend as Nintendo Co. launches an online news service through its popular Wii console.

The Wii News Channel, scheduled to debut Saturday, will primarily feature top news stories and photographs from The Associated Press.

Consoles with a broadband Internet connection will be able to access the free news channel, which will offer AP news in multiple languages. Japanese-language news will come from a separate agency.

There were no immediate plans to sell advertising space, said Perrin Kaplan, vice president for marketing at Nintendo’s U.S. headquarters in Redmond, Washington.

News will be displayed through an interactive map, which users can navigate with the Wii’s wireless controller, Kaplan said.

“The beauty of it is it zooms in and out of areas of the world,” she said. “So if you really want to focus on regional news or national news versus international, you just blow up the map of the U.S.”

The AP has a two-year contract to provide news and photos to Nintendo, and would like to provide multimedia in the future, said Jane Seagrave, vice president of new media markets for the New York-based news cooperative.

“It’s a very innovative new application of what we’re doing generally, which is to try to get our content to new audiences on new platforms,” Seagrave said.