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Rome: Two children have died after suffering severe burns in an explosion that followed a train derailment in northern Italy, bringing the death toll to 16, officials said on Wednesday. A 3-year old girl died at the Bambin Gesu hospital in Rome, said hospital official Marco Magheri. A 2-year old boy died in a Florence hospital, said Roberta Rezoalli of the Meyer hospital. Both children had suffered burns on 90 percent of their bodies, the officials said. A train carrying liquefied gas derailed while traveling through a downtown neighborhood in the Tuscan seaside town of Viareggio at around midnight Monday. The derailment set off a massive explosion that caught many residents as they slept. Twenty-seven people were injured, many of whom are in serious condition, Transports Minister Altero Matteoli said Wednesday as he briefed lawmakers on the disaster. Premier Silvio Berlusconi said he was canceling a trip to Libya following the accident. Berlusconi, whose country holds the G-8 presiden

New Delhi: The report on the Babri mosque demolition that was submitted to the Indian Prime Minister on Tuesday apparently indicts the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its leaders including L K Advani, and its parent body the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for conspiring to demolish the Mughal-era mosque, Times of India reported on Wednesday. The report has put the issue of demolition and the subsequent communal riots back in public consciousness with the Liberhan Commission, that was formed 17 years ago, submitting its findings to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday. The report's submission prompted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to declare its commitment to building a Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya, an issue that had polarised India and led to a chain of political events and hundreds of deaths in communal riots. It took the commission, headed by retired Andhra Pradesh High Court chief justice M.S. Liberhan, 17 years and 48 extensions to complete i

Dubai: flydubai has announced a $320 million deal with Ge Capital Aviation Services (Gecas) who will finance flydubai’s next aircraft – four Boeing 737s. Two aricraft are expeced in July, one in October and the last in December. This will bring flydubai’s fleet to six by the end of the year, operating to 14 destinations.

Dubai: A mother faces 10 years in jail for intentionally killing her three-and-a-half-year-old daughter and trying to murder her 22-month-old daughter with a 40-cm knife with which she also attempted suicide. The Dubai Court of First Instance yesterday pronounced the 24-year-old Indian mother, H.A., guilty of the premeditated murder of her daughter, Nashua K., and the attempted murder of her second daughter, Najiya K., and trying to kill herself with the same murder weapon. Paramedics' swift intervention helped save the life of the 22-month-old girl after she was rushed to hospital where she underwent emergency surgery. The psychological experts committee which examined H.A. concluded that she doesn't suffer any mental or psychological disorder and that she is responsible for her actions, according to the Public Prosecution's records. The committee further reported: "Facing some psychological pressures, might have influenced her capability to judge the consequences of

Dubai: A 37-year-old Briton, who is facing charges of unzipping his trousers while under intoxication and publicly flashing his private parts to a woman, failed to appear in court on Tuesday. When Presiding Judge Zakaria Othman of the Dubai Misdemeanours Court summoned the British advertising executive to relay his charges, the latter failed to appear in courtroom 5. "I consumed 12 cups of vodka in Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi and I don't recall unzipping my trousers and exposing myself to the woman," claimed the suspect in his statement before his interrogators. The Public Prosecution charged the Briton with committing an indecent gesture in public. He was additionally charged with cursing the 45-year-old Lebanese secretary and dishonouring her. According to records, the defendant refused to sign his statements before the police and the public prosecution because they were written in Arabic which he claimed he didn't know. "I was returning home from Jumeirah'

Dubai: The Dubai e-Government Resources Planning and Management System proceeded with the immediate activation of the law issued by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai last April, concerning three categories of employees in the Dubai judicial authority - judges, public prosecutors and judicial inspectors at the Ruler's Court. The decree took effect starting with the salary of May. The e-Government sent out the decree for taking effect on May 13, 2009, the higher administrative follow up and continuous work of the six manned joint team, tasked with activating the law, in cooperation with the e-Government System Development Administration, the infrastructure administration and the customer service administration, was able to offer the technical solutions required for the application of the law within two weeks. The Government Resources Planning Department System's team supervises the functioning, adm

Sharjah: The Sharjah Indian School might get a chance to get their act together and avoid closure, Gulf News has learnt. The education ministry recently instructed the Sharjah Educational Zone and related departments to halt all dealings with the school after it ignored several warnings against offering evening classes. However, K.R. Radhakrishnan Nair, the school's principal, claimed that the school had agreed to rectify the situation by completing the construction of its new block within eight months and doing away with extra shifts. "We have not received any instruction from the ministry [of Education] to close down the school. We have received two warnings and when we wrote to them giving an explanation on why we went ahead with the evening shift, the authorities [wrote] back saying that they are suspending all transactions with the school," Nair told Gulf News. "The construction of our new block was supposed to start in March. Due to the delay, we were forced to

Dubai: Winning the right to host the headquarters of the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) is remarkable. In fact, it is extraordinary, because the UAE has become the only developing state to host an international agency. Yet ironically, the excitement associated with this victory was not reflected in major newspapers in the Arab world or on Middle Eastern Satellite TV channels. Even pan-Arab newspapers based in Europe failed to acknowledge the news on their front pages. Remember, the announcement of the winner took place in Sharm Al Shaikh, Egypt, not in some far away country. By and large, the UAE's victory was reduced to a small news item in business sections of some newspapers, save for a few who took it on their front pages. There isn't a clear explanation for this regional media reaction (or lack thereof). One cannot help but wonder, are Arabic newspapers so used to bad news - wars, bloodshed, destruction etc - that when good news happen they simply don't

Mumbai: National Spot Exchange Ltd, India's biggest bourse for trading physical gold, will offer contracts in small denominations, aimed at households in the world's largest consumer of the precious metal. The exchange will offer contracts of between 8 grammes and 1 kilo, Anjani Sinha, managing director, said in an interview on Tuesday. The Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd and the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange Ltd, India's biggest commodity bourses, only trade gold futures. That forces individuals to buy or sell bullion through jewellers and banks in the physical form. Households in India have 25,000 tonnes locked away in family vaults, according to the National Spot Exchange. "Our main aim is to tap the huge household stock," said Sinha in a phone interview. "There's no transparent, electronic market with a nationwide reach for spot gold" in India, he said. India imports about 800 metric tonnes of gold a year, about a quarter of t

Baghdad: Iraq's long-awaited licensing round to develop some of its massive oil reserves stumbled yesterday as oil and gas companies dug in their heals, demanding more money for their efforts than the government was willing to pay. International oil companies were submitting bids for six oil and two gas fields more than 30 years after Saddam Hussain nationalised the oil sector and expelled foreign firms. The televised process coincided with Iraq assuming formal control over its cities - a step toward ending the US combat role in the country. But by midday, only one field had been awarded and several others drew limited to no interest. The government was hoping that the high-profile licensing round - tele-vised to prove its transparency - would result in companies flooding in, bringing their expertise as the country looks to boost output of a resource whose sales bring in 90 per cent of the government's revenues. Some analysts have said companies may be unwilling to commit to ma

Dubai: Dreamdays, the Dubai-based gift experience and gift voucher company, says it will provide credit to customers who still hold vouchers from bluebanana.com, a similar company which went bust last week. Customers holding bluebanana vouchers were told last Wednesday that they were no longer usable. Bluebanana's owner and managing director Simon Ford sent letters to his investors before leaving the country. However, the company's previous rival, Dreamdays, has come up with a way to plug the gap that bluebanana.com left. People who still have bluebanana vouchers can take them to Dreamdays who will offer credit equivalent to their experience voucher. "It is not direct compensation. We will take the voucher, check it is valid and then, it is kind of a credit system, we will give the person credit to use against a Dreamdays experience," Aman Eid, head of marketing at Dreamdays, told Gulf News.

Dubai: ANC Holdings is partnering with Amusement Whitewater (AWW) to capture a significant share of the leisure and entertainment market in the GCC, with $10 billion (Dh36.7 billion) of new projects coming over the next five years. AWW will break new ground in theme parks across the GCC in coming years with their new partners ANC Holdings and Abu Dhabi-based Flag Holdings. "We'd like to take AWW to Oman, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, anywhere in the GCC where we can build and create parks," said Tayyeb Baqer, chairman of ANC Holdings. While there are many well-known themed venues, including water parks, in Dubai, such as Atlantis, Wild Wadi and Dubailand, there is still room for more. Click Here! The value of the entertainment and leisure industry in the GCC is around $30 billion, but this is a figure that changes "day by day" due to new projects being launched and others suffering delays, explained Duarte Marques, chief executive officer of AWW. The partnership of the comp

Mumbai: Indian shares fell two per cent yesterday, but rallied by almost a half during April-June in their biggest quarterly gain in 17 years as investors rode on signs of an economic recovery and hopes for market-friendly policies. The outlook for the coming quarter will depend upon how much Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's ruling coalition, re-elected in May with a stronger mandate, lives up to market expectations for reforms such as further opening up the economy to foreigners and stake sales in state companies. Progress of annual monsoon rains, which provide a lifeline to India's trillion-dollar economy, the federal budget next Monday and quarterly company results in July should set the trend. Click Here! "Most positives are already factored in our prices, whereas disappointments are not. So, we don't see much of upside from here," said Ambareesh Baliga, vice president of Karvy Stock Broking. The 30-share BSE index jumped 49.3 per cent in the three months to Ju

Bangkok: Thailand refrained from giving a new target for tourist arrivals this year, citing the global recession and political uncertainty at home. "We don't have a specific forecast for this year as the situation is still fluid," Pensuda Priaram, the Tourism Authority of Thailand's acting governor, told reporters on Monday. "We hope we will have a better year next year." The agency is targeting 14 million tourists next year, expecting them to generate revenue of 530 billion baht (Dh57.3 billion), Pensuda said. Foreign tourists, who contribute to about six per cent of Thailand's gross domestic product, have declined in number every month since September as the global recession and local protests prompted individuals and businesses to defer travel. The Southeast Asian nation is in its first recession in a decade. The tourism authority said in December it expected to draw 12 million travellers this year, compared with last year's 14.5 million visitors.

Muscat: Oman on Monday began the process of selecting a team of project advisers to assist the government in the development of the country's first coal-fired power plant. The move is seen as an affirmation of the government's determination to press ahead with the project despite doubts expressed in some quarters about the viability of the venture. Several leading international banks, legal firms, and engineering consultants are vying for contracts to provide financial, technical and legal advisory services to the state-run Oman Power and Water Company (OPWP), which oversees the implementation of all new power projects by competitive tender. A growing shortfall of natural gas has compelled the government to explore alternative fuels, most notably coal, as a resource for future power generation. OPWP has outlined plans for a 1,000 megawatt-capacity coal-fired Independent Water and Power Project (IWPP) at Duqm in the remote Wusta region of the sultanate. The project is designed t

Karachi: Pakistan shares fell for the first time in five days after the stock market regulator banned five brokerages from trading, ahead of the last day of the country's fiscal year. The Karachi Stock Exchange 100 Index declined 43.99, or 0.6 per cent, to 7,162.18. Pakistan Telecommunication Co, the nation's biggest provider of phone services, slid 3.7 per cent to Rs17.24 (Dh0.77) after it declared a dividend that fell short of expectations, according to AKD Securities Ltd. Nestle Pakistan Ltd, the nation's largest maker of dairy products, dropped five per cent to Rs1,091.98. "The news of the suspension of brokerage houses, and the year-end settlements by investors, pulled the market down today," said Imran Khan, head of research at First Capital Equities Ltd. in Karachi.

Even as Ponzi king Bernard Madoff goes away to prison for the rest of his life and then some, there are still so many unanswered questions - both big and fundamental. Were Madoff's sons involved? What did his wife Ruth know? Were the operators of the giant feeder funds that sucked in tens of billions of dollars in investor money in on the charade? Those questions, though important, ultimately pale when compared with the bigger ones that remain about the root causes of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Indeed, for all the misery Madoff and his Ponzi brethren have caused, none of those scam artists were the cause of the crisis that brought the financial system to the brink. If anything, it was the financial crisis that helped flush out Madoff and his scurrilous ilk. So that's why the US Congress needs to act quickly to get up and running a bipartisan commission to study the underlying causes of the financial crisis. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi likens this new

Brussels/Frankfurt: Efforts to save two leading European carmakers took a twist on Tuesday that could change the ownership of both crisis-hit General Motors' (GM) Opel and German sportscar maker Porsche. As GM readied for bankruptcy, the Financial Times (FT) reported Belgium-based holding company RHJ International, a former bidder for Opel, was back in the running and close to a deal that would strand Canadian-Austrian auto parts group Magna International. Elsewhere, Qatar made an offer to the Porsche and Piech families that control the Porsche SE automotive holding that could help cut its debt mountain. Porsche and Volkswagen (VW) have been in talks to create an "integrated" automotive group after Porsche's 9-billion-euro (Dh46.5 billion) debt burden forced it to drop plans for a full takeover of VW. But progress towards creating a combined company stalled after Porsche chief executive Wendelin Wiedeking sought investment from Qatar's sovereign wealth fund. The F

You have to admire Mervyn King's nerve. The governor of the Bank of England has been speaking lately with customary self-confidence about Britain's economic challenges. His prescription is simple - we should all agree that the Bank knows best. Alistair Darling, it is fair to assume, is less than thrilled. The chancellor has only recently seen off Gordon Brown's attempt to shuffle him out of the Treasury. Secure until the election, he might have seen a chance to set out his own stall. Instead Darling put on his best bib and tucker for the Mansion House dinner, only to be upstaged by King's demand that the Bank take full control of financial regulation. Then came the governor's broadside on the chancellor's alleged failure to get a grip on the fiscal deficit. The governor's hesitant fumbling of the early stages of the financial crisis seems to have slipped his mind. The amnesia, colleagues say, is calculated. King frets about his place in the history books. Au

Article marketing is being considered a highly effective method to advertise your affiliate program and to increase traffic and earnings as well. Creating articles that are in connection with your affiliate programs will drive traffic to your site and thus greater potential of generating more sales. Not to mention several other advantages for your affiliate website. To begin with, ensure that your articles have top quality and useful content for your audience. The articles that you submit should be comprehensible and expressive. Don’t forget that need to connect with your audience, letting them know that you are an expert regarding affiliate marketing programs which you are advertising for. Be careful not to directly and obviously sell the products to them, as they will instantly loose interest in the article and you. Online marketers are always looking for new information and content. Most of the time, they are looking for ways to deal with problems. Basically, with your article you a

eBay has always been famous for online shopping and auctions as it has often been referred to as the pioneer of e-commerce. Unlike many online shopping sites of today, eBay offers simplicity for browsing through categories and desired products as well as paying for purchases. But perhaps the best thing about eBay is that it doesn't only serve large retail corporations. Any individual with internet connection can freely sell their products online. For this reason, eBay has become very popular for start-up companies and new online entrepreneurs. While others make money on eBay as a part-time endeavor, many have already managed to leave their employers due to better opportunities online brought about by their eBay selling activities. Should you wish to be among those who earn great earnings from eBay, the practical tips below will help. If you want to make a living out of eBay, you will need to approach it correctly. This will not just entail selling random items you can make good pro

New York: Bernard Madoff, sentenced to a prison term six times longer than those given to the chief executives of WorldCom Inc and Enron Corp., will likely serve his time in a harsher prison than those white-collar inmates. Sentenced to 150 years, Madoff will probably be sent to a medium- or high-security prison, probably in the northeastern US according to lawyers and prison consultants. Even worse for Madoff, fellow inmates serving life sentences may want "to make a name for themselves" by harming the ex-money manager, a former inmate said. The Federal Bureau of Prisons, which will decide where he's jailed, may isolate Madoff to protect him from other prisoners. "If they see an opportunity to take that man out and be in the paper and make a name for themselves, what do they have to lose," Steve Vincent, a former police officer jailed for theft who now runs Federal Prison Consultant Services in Louisville, Kentucky, said in an interview. "Wherever he goes,

Abu Dhabi: Summer in Abu Dhabi, a six-week family carnival, opens on Wednesday in the capital city and features a packed schedule of activities. The show is being staged at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre atrium and seven halls. The show, which will be open on weekdays from 2 to 10pm and on Fridays and Saturdays from 2pm until midnight, features a multinational cast of more than 200 performers from the US, Britain, France, Czech Republic, Poland, Russia, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Africa and the UAE. This annual carnival, now in its second year, is evolving into one of the biggest family attractions on the GCC event calendar. Tickets for Summer in Abu Dhabi are available at the door, priced at Dh40 for adults and Dh30 for children aged under 12. Tickets for Magic On Ice, priced at Dh200 for adults and Dh75 for children under 12, are available at www.timeouttickets.com or by calling toll free 800 4669. It took 7,000 man-hours for 22 event management

London: Norma Hill broke down in tears in the courtroom on Monday when Judge Denny Chin recounted the letter that she had sent to him, vividly describing how Bernard Madoff put his arm around her 21 years ago and said her money would be safe. Her husband had died recently and the mother of five invested the rest of her savings with Madoff. "If I in some small way helped influence him [the judge] in his very courageous decision, then I fulfilled the first step of my job," said Hill, of Armonk, New York, after the sentencing. In spite of receiving 150 years, the maximum possible punishment, Madoff was hardly forgiven. While his sentence satisfied the hopes of those who lost their savings to his scam, deep anger remained. Maureen Ebel, a widow who now must work three jobs, said that when she saw Madoff in the courtroom she wanted to throw darts at him and that when he turned and apologised to his victims it was meaningless. After Madoff was told he would never leave prison again

New York: The 150-year sentence handed down to Bernard Madoff closes just one chapter in the story behind one of the biggest, most shocking investment frauds in history. Few believe that the 71-year-old former broker committed the decades-long Ponzi scheme on his own, though he has always insisted he had no help. So far, only his long-time accountant, David Friehling, has been criminally charged in relation to the case, accused of certifying that he audited Madoff's firm and with enabling the investment fraud. He denies any wrongdoing. Madoff's family, including his wife and two sons, remains the focus of intense suspicion by investors, though none of them has been accused of any wrongdoing. Prosecutors have vowed to continue their investigation. "We are committed to bringing additional charges against anyone else who bears criminal responsibility," Lev Dassin, acting US attorney, on Monday said. But while investors wait to see who else may be prosecuted, they also fa

Why talk about recruitment and selection now when this isn't a key activity for a lot of organisations in the Gulf? The answer is because the smart organisations across the Gulf are reviewing their recruitment processes now so that when they want to recruit again later in the year they have a process that ensures that they don't take on somebody else's problems - a low performer. Attracting, motivating and retaining its employees is one of the key issues that all organisations face, irrespective of the climate in which they operate. Any organisation that wants talented people must have a clearly defined recruitment strategy that ensures it gets the best people and bases it upon best practice processes and procedures that ensure consistency and fair treatment of all those involved. Firstly, the organisation needs a clear recruitment policy. This should show all the hiring managers the aims of the process, the practices to be followed and the way in which the process is to be

Riyadh: Saudi Arabia's non-oil exports rose to 115 billion riyals (Dh112.6 billion) in 2008, a growth of 10 per cent over the previous year. Non-oil transformation industries also grew by 5.4 per cent in 2008, according to a recently released Saudi Industrial Development Fund annual report. There was an increase in the contribution of the industrial sector to non-oil exports. At the same time, industrial manufacturers of oil products, which include the petrochemical and fertiliser industries, registered huge successes internationally. The report sheds more light on indexes and shows the performance of Saudi Arabia's industrial sector. According to the report, chemical products top the list of industrial products exported by Saudi Arabia in 2007. Chemical products comprised 52.8 per cent of exports, consumer goods 21.7 per cent, engineering products 15.8 per cent and building materials 10 per cent. The performance index for the industrial sector showed a slight 2.7 per cent incr

Dubai: Uncertainty surrounding the proposed consolidation between real estate giant Emaar and three property developers under the government-owned Dubai Holding umbrella has thrown up questions about the plans financial implications for the two companies. Moody's on Tuesday reacted by downgrading its credit rating on Dubai Holding one level from A2 to A3 and placed it on review for further downgrade. Emaar Properties has been put on review for possible downgrade, from its current Baa1. "Whilst Moody's acknowledges that Dubai's property market seems to have largely bottomed out, the financial and structural implications of its decline have taken its toll on both companies' debt protection metrics", said Philipp Lotter, senior vice president at Moody's and lead analyst for Dubai Holding. "Moody's believes that these are likely to weaken further before the full effects of market recovery translate into stronger cash flows, irrespective of the announc

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John was waiting for his love.... "30 minutes late!!", his brain shouted at him, "Last time you were 5 mins late and she had literally gobbled u up ... remember??" "Yeah yeah", he said to his brain, "You know her ... all moody and stuff .... oh there she is" "Scold her OK?", his brain adviced. "OK I will try" Sweet Sheetal comes with the cutest smile and says "Im sorry honey ... I was shopping for shoes .. totally forgot about you" "What if you had said that line buddy?", shouted his brain .... "she would have had a nervous breakdown" John ignored his brain .. "Its OK honey .. its only half an hour .. no problem" She smiled once again .. held his hand and asked "Hope you remember what occasion is today" "OMG!!!", thought John ..... "Brain ... search database for reminders, anniversaries, silly anniversaries, birthdays and birthdays of people I dont care about&quo