Leaders of the Left parties the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), Communist Party of India (CPI), Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) and the Forward Bloc and its affiliated trade unions courted arrest in different parts of the country as they took out protest demonstrations and public rallies against an "unjustifiable and irrational" increase in the price of petrol and diesel.

Alternatives

The government last week increased the petrol and diesel prices by Rs4 (30fils) and Rs2 (15fils) a litre respectively to cut the losses of state-run oil marketing companies that have been hit hard by soaring global crude prices.

However, the CPI-M-led Left Front, which supports the Manmohan Singh government from outside, says the price hike could have been avoided if the government had implemented the alternatives it has suggested, including slashing customs and excise duties on crude imports.

The Communists-sponsored strike received support from regional parties like Uttar Pradesh's ruling Samajwadi Party, Assam's main opposition party Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the opposition party in Andhra Pradesh.

In the national capital, CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat, senior party leader Sitaram Yechury, CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan, RSP leader Abani Roy and Forward Bloc MP Debabrata Biswas courted arrest along with hundreds of supporters as they marched on the Jantar Mantar road.

"We have asked the government to cut the excise and custom duties to avoid a hike in fuel prices. They have not heard us," Karat said addressing the party activists.

"This hike is highly unjustifiable and irrational," he said.

Symbolic

While the protests brought life to a standstill in Left Front-ruled Kerala and Tripura, it was merely symbolic in the red bastion of West Bengal.

Security was stepped up at the Kolkata office of the state-run Indian Oil Corporation as Left Front supporters assembled outside its gates, waving red flags and placards.

A dawn-to-dusk strike in Kerala saw a virtual shutdown. Barring two-wheelers and private vehicles, public transport kept off the road, making it difficult for people to commute. While shops and commercial establishments downed their shutters, attendance in government offices was thin.

The universities in the state were forced to cancel various examinations.

Uttar pradesh

Ruling party criticises government

The recent hike in fuel prices provoked statewide protests in several parts of Uttar Pradesh yesterday with the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) criticising the central government's move.

The SP demonstrators detained trains and put up roadblocks in several towns. Except for Meerut and a few other places, the demonstrations remained peaceful and symbolic. The only common factor was frontal attack on the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

Crash won the best film award beating the much-fancied Brokeback Mountain.The low-budget culture-clash drama, Crash, which explores racial prejudices among a range of characters who are connected in often surprising ways, garnered six Oscar nominations and won three, for film editing, best original screenplay and best picture.

Ang Lee grabbed the best director award for Brokeback Mountain, the tale of two old shepherding pals who carry on a love affair they conceal from their families for years.

Lee, whose martial-arts epic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon won the foreign-language Oscar five years ago, became the first Asian filmmaker to win Hollywood's main filmmaking honor. "I'm so proud of the movie," Lee said backstage, where he was asked if he was disappointed that his film about gay cowboys lost best picture and what might have kept it from winning. "Why they didn't go for it, I don't know. You're asking a question that I don't know the answer. ... Congratulations to the Crash filmmakers."

George Clooney won the supporting-actor Academy Award for the oil-industry thriller Syriana, and Rachel Weisz took the supporting-actress prize for another corporate thriller, The Constant Gardener.

The Sunday win capped a remarkable year for Clooney, who made Oscar history by becoming the first person nominated for acting in one movie and directing another.In Syriana, Clooney effaced his glamour-boy looks behind the bearded, heavyset facade of a CIA patriot who grows jaded over US oil policy in the Middle East.

"All right, so I'm not winning director," Clooney joked, adding that an Oscar win always would be synonymous with his name from then on, including in his obituary. "Oscar winner George Clooney, sexiest man alive 1997, 'Batman', died today in a freak accident."

It was a share-the-wealth evening, six different films splitting the top six Oscars.

Brokeback Mountain won two others - adapted screenplay for Larry McMurtry (Lonesome Dove) and Diana Ossana and musical score for Gustavo Santaolalla.

Crash also won for the original screenplay by the film's director, Paul Haggis, and Bobby Moresco.

Witherspoon won a close race over Felicity Huffman in a gender-bending performance as a transsexual in Transamerica. "Oh, my goodness I never thought I'd be here in my whole life growing up in Tennessee," said Witherspoon, who like co-star Joaquin Phoenix as Carter's soul mate, country legend Johnny Cash, handled her own singing in Walk the Line.

"People used to ask June how she was doing, and she would say I'm just trying to matter. I know what she means," said Witherspoon, who told the audience the Oscar made her feel she was doing work that matters.

Hoffman's performance nimbly straddles the magnetic qualities of raconteur Capote and the effete, off-putting egoism of the author. "Wow, I'm in a category with some great, great, great actors, fantastic actors, and I'm overwhelmed. Really overwhelmed," said Hoffman, who asked the Oscar audience to congratulate his mother for bringing up four children alone.

"We're at the party, mom," Hoffman said. "Be proud, mom, because I'm proud of you."

CPI favours Smart City

Kottayam, Feb 24: The CPI in Kerala was in favour of implementing the "Smart City" project, a massive technology park plan to be implemented in conjunction with Dubai, and accepting loans from the Asian Development Bank for five Municipal Corporations in the state, party Assistant Secretary K E Ismail has said.

Leading a Janakeeya Yatra which entered Kottayam yesterday, he said "We are not against the Smart City project and it should be implemented by taking people into confidence".

The party will discuss the issue of ADB loan at the next LDF meeting, he said, adding the loan would be useful in taking up developmental works. But, ADB's conditions were "harmful", he felt.

Kissan Sabha General Secretary Sathyan Mukeri, who was also present, said as the state was small in size, express highways were not needed.

The yatra, which started on February 5, will conclude at Thiruvananthapuram on March 1.

Lenovo Unveils Lenovo-Branded Computers
Feb 23, 12:48 AM EST

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- Stepping up competition in the PC industry, Lenovo Group Ltd., the world's third largest computer maker, is introducing its first Lenovo-branded computers to be sold outside its home base of China.

The new products - low-priced desktops and notebooks targeted at small businesses and consumers - will mark Lenovo's first brand foray in the United States and other countries since completing its purchase of IBM Corp.'s ailing PC business in May 2005.

The products will be unveiled at press conferences Thursday in 10 cities worldwide, including New York, Paris, and Turin, Italy, where Lenovo has been a major sponsor of the Olympics to help it expand its brand recognition beyond China.

"This is our coming-out party: The Olympics got our name out in front of the world, and these will be the brand name products we'll be introducing with that," said Jeff Dudash, a Lenovo spokesman.

IBM goes after small biz
22 Feb 2006 16:09

Big Blue is changing its channel strategy to better serve small and medium businesses. Joe Senior, of IBM's integrated partner team, said: "This is a global initiative with significant investment of dollars and people." IBM wants to double the numbers of partners it has serving the Small and Medium Business market.

Senior said IBM was doubling spending on the sector compared to last year. He said resellers would get solid pre and post-sales support, dedicated account managers and marketing help. He said it was not just about Express - Big Blue's budget range - but other products too.

However, Google is likely not responsible for displaying the underlying images from Perfect 10's website, a judge in the US District Court for the Central District of California said in a ruling last week that was made public this week. The order could effectively bar Google from featuring thumbnail pictures - small versions of photos that are linked to a bigger version of the same picture - but not limit Google from linking to actual photos which exist on other websites. The judge accepted that people who click on full-size images from Perfect 10 are not viewing images that Google has stored or served up on its computers but links to other sites. Google argued that its thumbnails constitute fair use.

Microsoft has invested heavily in adding features that will make it easier and less expensive for companies to keep their computer networks secure and working smoothly, said Brad Goldberg, general manager for Windows product management.

In a conference call Wednesday, Goldberg said the new operating system would allow people to log onto their office's system remotely without needing to connect through a virtual private network, or VPN, which some users find cumbersome.

Other improvements he noted include:

•Safer Web browsing with the inclusion of Internet Explorer version 7.

•Easier installation of software fixes, known as patches, to protect computers from attacks.

•Improved user account control to let more workers do things like install printer drivers without being set up for administrator access, thereby limiting such access to those who truly need the higher-level functions. It's harder for attacks to spread on computers that don't have administrator access.

Goldberg said the test is being made available to about 500,000 select customers, and the company plans to release the preview to a broader consumer test audience in its next fiscal quarter, which begins in April.