Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is intensifying his diplomatic drive to secure a Gaza ceasefire, meeting with Arab foreign ministers in New York today to press for an end to hostilities by both Israel and Hamas while preparing to travel to Washington tomorrow for talks with United States President George W. Bush.

Tata Consultancy Services today announced the launch of its development centre 'TCS Kalinga Park' in Bhubaneswar, Orissa. The facility was inaugurated by Naveen Patnaik, honourable chief minister, Orissa, in the presence of Surjya Narayan Patro, honourable minister of energy, culture and information technology, Orissa, Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra, commissioner-cum-secretary, IT, Orissa, S Ramadorai, CEO and managing director, TCS, N Chandrasekaran, COO and executive director, TCS, S Mahalingam, CFO and executive director, TCS, and B Muthuraman, managing director, Tata Steel.

PSI Services LLC, a well-respected Talent Assessment firm, has announced a new contract with STG, a technology driven company, providing world class software consulting and training solutions to organizations, to expand its global talent assessment practices to the Indian market.

The program will launch immediately and will help pinpoint top talent from within India's rapidly growing pool of technically trained candidates.

“We last met to discuss internal security issues in December 2007, a little over a year ago. The twelve months that have passed since then have been a difficult period for us. The security situation has, if anything, become even more complex. Many predictions made a year ago have unfortunately turned out to be true. In some cases the scale and magnitude of terrorist attacks appear to have been stepped up exponentially. In the prevailing circumstances we cannot afford to take a partial or segmented view. A holistic approach to our security concerns is definitely called for.

Ambulances and medical workers in Gaza are facing increasing difficulty in reaching the wounded, some are being killed in doing so, and a “humanitarian breathing space” is vital to ensure that food and medical supplies reach those in need as Israel’s offensive entered its 10th day, the top United Nations relief official in the area said today.

The Sterlite® Fiber Powered Home™ is a unique bouquet of applications meeting the requirements of both enterprise and residential customers. Users of the Sterlite® Fiber Powered Home™ would be able to experience the true potential of blazing speed broadband, supported on an optical fiber based infrastructure, through exciting and interactive applications that include Video Conferencing, Video Surveillance, Video-on-Demand, Voice Over IP, High Speed Gaming, Online File Sharing, IPTV, PSTN and several more.

Government has fully exempted certain taxable services from service tax, provided to a goods transport agency (GTA) by their sub-contractors. A notification, No.1/2009–Service Tax, to this effect was issued by the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, here today. These services are generally used by the GTA during the course of transport of goods. The specified services are :-

(i) clearing and forwarding agent service;

(ii) manpower recruitment or supply service;

(iii) cargo handling service;

It's cold and flu season, which means misery for kids and the parents trying to help them.

But doctors are asking parents to resist the urge to give children under the age of 6 over-the-counter cough and cold medication.

Such drugs can have serious side effects on the smallest of children, the Food and Drug Administration warns. Side effects include hives, drowsiness, difficulty breathing and even death.

Steve Jobs, CEO, Apple
For the first time in a decade, I'm getting to spend the holiday season with my family, rather than intensely preparing for a Macworld keynote.

Unfortunately, my decision to have Phil deliver the Macworld keynote set off another flurry of rumors about my health, with some even publishing stories of me on my deathbed.

I've decided to share something very personal with the Apple community so that we can all relax and enjoy the show tomorrow.

Shri Brahm Dutt, Secretary (Road Transport & Highways) has termed the strike by the transporters under the banner of All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC) as highly unreasonable and unjustified as the Government has met all the promises made at the time of previous strike in July last year.

The College started functioning from academic year 2008-09. It offers 4 ½ years MBBS for the award of Degree of Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, following one year compulsory internship. The college is affiliated to Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi and approved by Medical Council of India.

An Action plan for enhancing the annual testing capacity of the National Dope Test Laboratory (NDTL) at an estimated expenditure of Rs 10 crore has been approved. This was decided at the first meeting of the General Body and Governing Body of the NDTL, which was held under the Chairmanship of Dr. M.S. Gill, Minister for Youth Affairs & Sports here today.

The government is considering a proposal to raise intake of cadets from the National Cadet Corps (NCC) into the prestigious Indian Military Academy (IMA) from 64 to 80, Lt. General RK Karwal, Director-General, NCC, said here today. Alarmed over the shortfall of officers, the government is also likely to hike the intake of NCC 'C' certificate holders into the Officers Training Academy (OTA), Chennai, from 79 to 100, he added.

As an Israeli ground offensive in Gaza gets underway, both Israeli and Palestinian forces must address heightened civilian protection concerns because of likely combat in densely populated urban areas, Human Rights Watch said today. Both sides must stringently abide by the laws of war, including taking all feasible measures to avoid harm to civilians and facilitating access for humanitarian workers and medical personnel.

Hindus have demanded immediate setting-up of an independent “media watchdog” by European Union to monitor the frequent media discrimination and bias against Roma people in Europe, who migrated from India many centuries back, and who reportedly face apartheid like conditions.

Edimax Technology, a leading manufacturer of networking solutions, today, announced nLite wireless mini size USB adapter - EW-7711UMn. EW-7711UMn is a mini size wireless USB adapter which provides a simple and easy way to add or upgrade wireless connectivity to your desktop or notebook computer. This nLite USB adapter supports higher data rate up to 150Mpbs and is compatible with wireless 802.11n device. You can just plug it into your computer's USB port and enjoy incredible high-speed wireless network access.

Successful promotion campaigns don't happen by chance. To realise goals, promotional products programs must be carefully planned, taking into
consideration the audience, budget and, of course, the ultimate result to be gained.

Define a specific objective.
Whether the goal is to increase traffic at a trade show exhibit or to boost sales with current clients, the first step in any campaign is to clarify the purpose of the program.

Determine a workable distribution plan to a targeted audience.

Hindus have admired the efforts of Church of Norway for building bridges with other religions and have urged other world religions and denominations to initiate interfaith dialogue.

Acclaimed Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that serious and honest interfaith dialogue was the need of the hour. Religion was the most powerful, complex and far-reaching force in our society, so we must take it seriously. And we all knew that religion comprised much more than our own particular tradition/experience.

Safexpress Pvt Ltd, leader in the Supply Chain and Logistics Industry, has rolled out its new service ‘Stock2Shelf’, to provide value added supply chain services to the Malls across the country. This is the first of its kind ‘end-to-end professional mall supply chain service’ in the country for the retail stores inside the malls and is all set to redefine the Mall-Scape. This innovative end-to-end service addresses the supply chain management requirements of major retailers across the country in a professional and efficient manner.

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC), a Public Sector Undertaking of the Ministry of Railways, is developing modern facilities to meet the pressing requirements of good quality food to travelling public and simultaneously working to enhance Railways’ revenues by introducing the concept of food plazas/fast food units under public private partnership at stations. So far, as on date, 53 food plazas are operational and 19 food plazas have been awarded and are under various stages of construction.