Dragged down by poor reading and math scores, a low graduation rate and eroding funding for schools, California education received a grade of C and ranked 30th in the nation on an annual survey released Tuesday.

The state's score dropped slightly from 2010, when it received a C-plus in the Quality Counts survey conducted by the Maryland-based nonprofit Editorial Projects in Education Research Center.

States throughout the nation struggled to earn a passing grade. Researchers awarded U.S. education systems as a whole a C. California earned 76.2 points on a 1-to-100 scale -- that was not graded on a curve -- summing up six areas of policy and performance.

California lags in nearly all of them. The state earned a D-minus in achievement, and a C in the three areas of finance, the teaching profession and factors contributing to student success. It did better, receiving a B-minus, in integrating different levels of education. And the state earned an A-minus in testing, standards and accountability, for 17th in the nation.

Paul Hefner, a spokesman for the California Department of Education, noted that the academic portion of the survey is pegged to national tests given to random fourth- and eighth-graders, a test that doesn't necessarily align with the California curriculum. California students have historically performed much worse on that test, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, than on the annual state STAR tests.

Still,
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"We can't afford to be satisfied with a C for California schools," said Tom Torlakson, the state's newly instated superintendent of public instruction, in a prepared statement.

For the third year in a row, Maryland was ranked above all other states, receiving a B-plus overall, followed by Massachusetts and New York, which recorded B's. At the bottom were Nebraska, South Dakota and the District of Columbia, which were given D-pluses.

On the survey's component measuring achievement, California ranked 46th with a D-minus, below South Carolina and above New Mexico. Massachusetts topped that category with a B, followed by Maryland and New Jersey. The achievement index measured 18 indicators, including test achievement, year-to-year improvement and disparities based on family income.

But an indication of the dismal state of the country's schools, the average state earned a D-plus in achievement. Four states and Washington, D.C., earned F's.

The report also addressed the effect of the recession on schools and noted that the nation had stalled in widening opportunity for students to succeed. The survey's "chance-for-success" index looked at the role education plays over a lifetime by measuring 13 indicators ranging from family income, preschool and college enrollment to adult employment. California scored 42nd among states, rating a C. The national average was a C-plus.

While the recession hit schools hard, Uncle Sam has played a major role in keeping schools from falling off a financial cliff, the survey found. About one-third of all federal stimulus funds, or $80.6 billion, flowed through schools, it noted. Those moneys saved or created more than 650,000 jobs.

In spending on education, California scored 60.1, or just barely a D-minus. But its overall score in the finance category was boosted by its efforts to equalize funding among districts and disparate groups.

The Editorial Projects in Education Research Center is a nonprofit focusing on preschool through 12th grade. It also publishes the periodical Education Week, focusing on K-12 education. Quality Counts 2011 was its 15th annual survey.

The day after Washington, D.C., Mayor Adrian Fenty lost his reelection bid last September, Michelle Rhee, the city's schools chancellor and No. 1 lightning rod, had an OMG moment. For three years, Fenty had constantly spent political capital defending Rhee as she fired hundreds of teachers and principals, closed schools, and earned both education reformers' adoration and teachers' unions' wrath. He eventually paid with his job -- and she knew she'd soon pay with hers. What am I going to do? she thought.

She went to Hawaii with her fiancé, Kevin Johnson, the former NBA star, charter-school founder, and Sacramento mayor. At this point, she was flooded with job offers. "I know how you are. You just want to make a decision and jump into the next thing," Johnson said to Rhee. "I'm not going to let you do that. We're going to take our time." She replied, "That's not how I operate." "Well, this is the way you're going to do it this time," he said.

On October 13th, Rhee announced her resignation. Suitors -- rumored to include Chicago mayoral hopeful Rahm Emanuel and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie -- kept coming after her. She says one private-sector exec offered her well north of $1 million a year, "and I literally wasn't going to have to do anything." Says Johnson: "She was getting really antsy because she doesn't like being in limbo."

In October, Charlie Rose interviewed Rhee at the Forstmann Little conference in Aspen, Colorado. As they discussed the problems with America's education system, a plan began to crystallize in her mind. Later that day, Rhee flew to Sacramento and went with Johnson and his mother to dinner at Mulvaney's, one of her favorite restaurants. Johnson could sense something was up. "She just had this clarity and this peace," he recalls. He gave Rhee his business card, and she started scribbling on the back. By dinner's end, they had the outline of an organization that would throw huge amounts of money behind the brand of reform that Rhee has long advocated, first as founding CEO of the New Teacher Project and then as D.C. chancellor. It would be set up not as a charity but as a political-advocacy and membership group, along the lines of AARP or the NRA, and it would rely on private donations and Rhee's star power. "This is it," Johnson told her with a smile.

On December 6th, Rhee announced on Oprah that she would not work for anyone else. Instead, she was starting an organization called Students First. She planned to raise $1 billion and recruit 1 million supporters in year one. Right after the show, Rhee's 11-year-old daughter, Starr, texted her, saying, "I plan on signing up to be a supporter."

A base of a million people and a billion dollars would be unprecedented within education reform. Rhee is reluctant to name her potential donors, but IMG chief Theodore Forstmann tells Fast Company that he is "very supportive of everything she stands for -- and will continue to be." Philanthropist Eli Broad says he "expects to be a major contributor." "People supporting the status quo have spent hundreds of millions of dollars a year to maintain it," Broad says. "I think she'll be a game changer."

In the coming weeks and months, Rhee plans to push her main points. She wants to change the tenure and seniority rules that she says have favored adults and their jobs over kids' educations. She'll campaign for parents to have more control over what public schools their children attend. She will lobby for cities to choose mayoral, rather than board, control of schools, because she believes that concentrating authority -- as in New York and D.C. -- is a prerequisite for real reform. And given the soaring spending but middling performance of American public schools, she'll advocate stronger fiscal responsibility.

A key pillar of Students First's strategy is to build grassroots support, much as Barack Obama did during the 2008 presidential campaign -- with thousands of small donors and on-the-ground campaign workers. Johnson has pushed Rhee hard on this: "They didn't do as good a job as they should have on community involvement in D.C.," he says. "Unless you have the grassroots folks who want it even more than the policy makers, it's never going to happen."

Rhee may have to modulate her sales pitch to succeed. "An important segment of the education community sees her as divisive, anti-teacher, and confrontational," says Jeffrey Henig, a professor of political science and education at Columbia Teachers College. Andrew Rotherham, cofounder of the ed-reform not-for-profit Bellwether Education Partners, adds that Rhee cannot act as she did in D.C. "There is a half-life to the ass-kicking Michelle Rhee," he says. "She's also the very thoughtful Michelle Rhee of the New Teacher Project. She has to strike that balance."

In a series of interviews in New York and Sacramento, Rhee told Fast Company the inside story of the genesis of Students First, discussed her hopes for the organization, and talked about those audacious goals.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Custodians at public schools across the city have been directed to search for evidence of toxic chemicals in light ballasts following protests at PS 36, Annadale, where the toxins were discovered before Christmas break.

A memo sent by Deputy Chancellor Kathleen Grimm of the city Department of Education instructs that visual inspection for leaks or stains that "would be either brownish/black or a lighter shade of yellowish/brown" is to begin "immediately." Those leaks could indicate the presence of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, a manmade chemical in common use until its banning in the mid-1970s. Studies have shown that longtime exposure could lead to cancer.

If a ballast appears to be leaking, custodians are to check the floor beneath the fixture. If stains are found, they are to be reported and the area is to have limited access, the memo said.

Ballasts that don't work, even after the bulb is changed, should be checked as well.

Leaky ballasts are to be reported to the deputy director of facilities with a work request, though ballasts will not be replaced without further instruction.

Earlier this week, parents at PS 36 kept their children home from school until physical inspections -- in which custodians removed the lenses and light bulbs in every ballast -- were performed, with leaky ballasts replaced, and air monitor tests completed.

Just 26 percent of the school's 923 students were at school yesterday, following a dismal 25 percent the previous day, according to DOE spokeswoman Margie Feinberg.

Tests conducted more than a week ago showed PCB levels to be high in light ballasts in two classrooms. Those fixtures have since been replaced, and work is being done on other ballasts.

City Councilman Vincent Ignizio (R-South Shore), who joined Ms. Grimm, the deputy chancellor, Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott and Rep. Michael Grimm (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn) on a tour of the school yesterday morning, said he was happy to see the DOE taking such an initiative.

"This directive is a major policy change," he said. "This unfortunate circumstance at PS 36 may actually have a positive outcome."

The federal Environmental Protection Agency has been pressuring the city to inspect and replace ballasts that could contain PCBs in about 740 city public schools.

DOE spokeswoman Natalie Ravitz has said the city is taking the issue "seriously" but that federal funding would be necessary "or this could have devastating consequences on our education budget."

HAMBURG, Jan 12, 2011 (dpa - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Jimmy Wales is constantly on the go. Most of the year he travels round the globe. His mission? To make all human knowledge accessible to everyone.

"Wikipedia is going to be increasingly global in the future," the 44-year-old American says. "We will have enormous growth in the developing world." It was 10 years ago, in January 2001, that he launched the online encyclopedia. Now, ten years later, it offers 17 million entries in more than 260 languages.

Wales was born in 1966 in Alabama. His father was a grocery store manager and his mother an educator. Even as a boy he had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and "spent lots of hours" reading the Britannica and World Book Encyclopedia.

His earliest education was at home from his own mother, who ran a small private school on the Montessori method. Later Jimbo, as friends call him, got a master's degree in finance and worked as the research director of a Chicago futures and options firm for several years.

His driving passion is computers. Since the earliest days of personal computing he has been an Internet addict and even wrote computer codes as a hobby, according to his own biographical entry on Wikipedia.

In 1996, he and two partners founded Bomis, a men's web portal featuring entertainment and adult content. This website provided the initial funding for the peer-reviewed encyclopedia Nupedia in 2000.

Thanks to the Wiki software, which enables each user immediate access -- as author or as editor -- Wikipedia was founded the following year.

Today Wikipedia resembles pretty much what he originally envisioned, he told the German Press Agency dpa in an interview.

"But of course it's a lot larger and more popular than I had ever imagined," he said.

So can we say that Wikipedia has made the world different and has made Wales a rich man? "I hope that the world has become a little better." And as for the financial side. "The pages are non-commercial and they will stay that way," Wales explained. But his for-profit Internet company Wikia is doing well and shows a profit.

"That may make me rich!" he said.

Wales is a self-avowed "Objectivist to the core", Objectivism being an individualist philosophy developed by writer Ayn Rand. And he is an avid chess player.

He is separated from his second wife, with whom he has a daughter. Although 10-year-old Kira consults Wikipedia on occasion, her father favours traditional education.

"Anybody who says you don't need to know anything these days, just know where to look it up, is mistaken, in my opinion," he said.

And Wales himself still loves to pore over books just as he did when he was a boy.

"Books are great. They're inexpensive and the batteries never run down," he said.

Jan. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc.’s Android operating system for mobile devices is more vulnerable to hackers and viruses than Apple Inc.’s iPhone platform, according to security-software maker Trend Micro Inc.

“Android is open-source, which means the hacker can also understand the underlying architecture and source code,” Steve Chang, chairman of Trend Micro, the world’s largest provider of security software for corporate servers, said in an interview in Taipei yesterday. “We have to give credit to Apple, because they are very careful about it. It’s impossible for certain types of viruses” to operate on the iPhone, he said.

Google, owner of the world’s most-popular online search engine, offers Android for free and allows developers access to its code for writing software. Apple, whose iOS software trails Android in smartphone market share, requires every application to be approved before being sold in its online store.

“On all computing devices, users necessarily entrust at least some of their information to the developer of the application they’re using,” Mountain View, California-based Google said in an e-mailed statement. “Android has taken steps to inform users of this trust relationship and to limit the amount of trust a user must grant to any given application developer.”

Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. mobile-phone carrier, said yesterday it will begin selling Apple’s handset next month. Verizon’s iPhone may cannibalize about 2 million Android shipments a year, according to Dan Hays, partner at consulting firm PRTM.

‘The Next PC’

Chang said he’s betting Android users will start to buy more security software for mobile devices.

“Smartphones are the next PC, and once they’re adopted by enterprises, data loss will be a very key problem,” he said.

On Jan. 7, Tokyo-based Trend Micro released Mobile Security for Android, software that users can install on a mobile phone to block viruses, malicious programs and unwanted calls. Trend Micro aims for the $3.99 application to help it gain revenue from the more than 250 million phones Gartner Inc. expects will run on Android by 2014.

“Apple has a sandbox concept that isolates the platform, which prevents certain viruses that want to replicate themselves or decompose and recompose to avoid virus scanners,” Chang said.

Apple’s iOS isn’t fully immune to security threats and may be hit with so-called social-engineering attacks, which trick users into authorizing the download or installation of malicious software, Chang said. Trend Micro offers a security application for Apple’s iOS, he said.

Natalie Harrison, a spokeswoman for Cupertino, California- based Apple, didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.

Market Share

Phones using Android accounted for 26 percent of the global smartphone market in the third quarter, behind Symbian, used in Nokia Oyj handsets, and ahead of iOS, which had a 17 percent share, researcher Gartner said Nov. 10.

In 2014, 259 million devices, or 29.6 percent of all smartphones, will use Android, trailing 30.2 percent share for Symbian and ahead of 15 percent share for iOS, Gartner predicted in September.

Trend Micro’s 2010 revenue is expected to have dropped 1.3 percent to 95 billion yen ($1.1 billion) and net income is forecast to be 22 percent lower, at 13.7 billion yen, according to the average of eight analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Sony has stepped up its fight over recent PS3 exploits by filing for a restraining order against George "Geohot" Hotz, the "hacking group" fail0verflow and numerous other individual

Alleging that those involved have violated the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the firm is seeking a restraining order asking that all PS3 circumvention tools be taken offline and related computers be impounded.

Engadget points out that this isn't yet a lawsuit in the traditional sense as Sony hasn't filed a copyright infringement claim. The firm, it appears, simply wants the PS3 jailbreak and any information about it to disappear from the web, but that would seem to be only a short-term solution to the problem.

Google Inc.’s Android Market, Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry App World and Nokia Oyj’s Ovi Store added mobile-phone software faster than Apple Inc.’s App Store in the U.S. last year, research company Distimo said.

Android Market had the highest rate of overall growth, reaching 130,000 applications in the U.S. by Dec. 31, or more than six times the number at the end of 2009, Utrecht, Netherlands-based Distimo said in a report. Nokia’s free applications surged 10-fold, helping its total U.S. applications more than triple to 25,000, the third-biggest app lineup after Apple and Android.

Nokia, Android and RIM have wooed software developers with instructional events and new tools in an effort to catch up to Apple, whose iPhone U.S. catalog includes almost 300,000 applications, according to Distimo. Apple’s fastest-growing category was business, while competitors added media and entertainment applications to counter the Cupertino, California- based company’s lead in music and books.

“The high download volumes of free applications appear to attract developers to switch to monetization methods other than paid,” analysts Hendrik Koekkoek and Gert Jan Spriensma wrote in the report.

BlackBerry’s store more than tripled last year to 18,000 apps, according to Distimo. Apple’s iPhone U.S. offerings doubled.

The market share of free applications rose while the price of paid applications fell, the analysts said. Among the top 100 applications, prices declined by an average 9 percent at Android and by 61 percent at Ovi Store. The proportion of applications costing more than $5 fell to 15 percent as of Dec. 31 from 21 percent a year earlier, Distimo said.

India’s industrial production grew at the slowest pace in 18 months in November, a deceleration that may not prevent the central bank from raising interest rates this month as surging food prices drive up inflation.

Output at factories, utilities and mines rose 2.7 percent from a year earlier, the government said in a statement in New Delhi today, less than the revised 11.3 percent jump in October when the Hindu festivals of Dussehra and Diwali boosted demand for goods. The median estimate of 30 economists in a Bloomberg News survey was for a 6.6 percent gain.

Reserve Bank of India Governor Duvvuri Subbarao, facing inflationary pressures, said Jan. 7 that there are “doubts” whether the factory output data show the strength in consumption. Food prices including those of onions and milk have surged, prompting the top economic adviser to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to call for higher borrowing costs.

“There is no reason for worry due to this data because the growth momentum is strong,” said Indranil Pan, chief economist at Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. in Mumbai. “Price pressures are building up and we expect the RBI to raise rates this month.”

Bond Yields

The benchmark nine-year government bond yield fell one basis point to 8.19 percent at 11:06 a.m. in Mumbai. The yield has gained 29 basis points this month on speculation Subbarao may increase rates at the Jan. 25 monetary policy announcement. That would be the seventh move in a year, the most by any central bank in Asia. The RBI’s benchmark repurchase rate is 6.25 percent.

The Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index lost 0.3 percent in Mumbai while the rupee was little changed at 45.19 against the dollar.

“The industrial production data has been fluctuating in recent months, bewildering analysts about the underlying trend and even raising doubts about the quality of the data itself,” Subbarao said in New Delhi on Jan. 7.

India’s industrial output has vacillated since May, when it registered a 12.2 percent expansion. The growth dropped to 7.2 percent in June, rebounded to 15.1 percent in July, slid to 4.4 percent in September and then recovered in October, according to government data.

Consumer Demand

Manufacturing grew 2.3 percent in November after an 11.9 percent gain in October, today’s report showed. Consumer goods production fell 3.1 percent compared with a 9.6 percent increase in the previous month. Mining output advanced 6 percent while electricity production rose 4.6 percent.

“We wouldn’t view such a correction in the December industrial production as worrying since it is likely to largely reflect an unwinding of the sharp one-off Diwali festival jump in October plus base effects,” Robert Prior-Wandesforde, the Singapore-based head of India and Southeast Asia economics at Credit Suisse Group AG, said in a note before the release.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Dec. 30 said India’s growth prospects are strong and raised his inflation forecast for the year through March. The inflation rate may be “around” 6.5 percent by March 31, Mukherjee said, more than the 6 percent prediction he made on Dec. 14. The rate was 7.5 percent in November.

Food Inflation

Food inflation accelerated to 18.32 percent in the week ended Dec. 25, the highest rate since July, the commerce ministry said on Jan. 6. Prices of onions, a key ingredient in the nation’s cuisine, soared 80 percent during the week and milk by 20 percent.

On Dec. 7, the finance ministry lifted its growth forecast for the current financial year to as much as 9.1 percent from a range of 8.25 percent to 8.75 percent it predicted earlier, on strengthening local demand.

Growing automobile sales and bank credit provide evidence of rising consumption in the South Asian nation.

Loans extended by lenders including ICICI Bank Ltd. gained 23.71 percent in the week to Dec. 17, the most since January 2009, according to central bank data.

Sales at Tata Motors Ltd., the nation’s biggest truckmaker and producer of the world’s cheapest car, rose 30.6 percent in December, the fastest pace in four months, the company said Jan. 4. Hero Honda Motors Ltd., which makes half the motorcycles sold in India, reported a 33.3 percent increase in sales last month from a year earlier.

Rate Forecast

Prior-Wandesforde said there are chances of the central bank boosting rates by half a point in the Jan. 25 meeting, raising his earlier forecast of a quarter-point increase.

India and China, the world’s fastest-growing major economies, are tightening their monetary policy to counter price gains. China’s central bank raised rates twice in the fourth quarter, ratcheted up banks’ reserve requirements and allowed gains by the yuan against the dollar.

Inflation has emerged as a top political issue in India.

The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, will hold demonstrations and stage sit-ins in India’s major towns for a month starting Jan. 20, party spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said in New Delhi yesterday.

Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of India’s Planning Commission, said Prime Minister Singh yesterday discussed steps to curb prices with cabinet colleagues. He didn’t elaborate. More deliberations may be held today, the Press Trust of India reported, without saying where it got the information.

“The Reserve Bank of India should watch the behavior of the prices,” Chakravarthy Rangarajan, chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, said in a Jan. 7 interview in Gurgaon, near New Delhi. “If prices continue to remain sticky, then probably some action will be required.”

South Africa vs India, 1st ODI starts 18:00 IST | 12:30 GMT | 14:30 local

India takes on South Africa in the first one-day international (ODI) at Durban today and it may just have done enough to put themselves ahead of the Proteas.

Having thrashed the Proteas handsomely in the lone T20 match, MS Dhoni and his boys, or men if you prefer(as Sachin Tendulkar no longer qualifies as one!), should be eyeing a win.

This is applicable despite Praveen Kumar pulling up injured and being replaced by India's error-prone fast bowling 'mean machine' in the form of Ishant Sharma.

However, India has always been dependent on its batsmen to win matches and this should apply today too – remember, the World Cup triumph in 1983 by Kapil Dev & co (remember again, Jimmy Amarnath, Balwinder Sandhu, Roger Binny?) was never repeated!

LUCKNOW, India -- Police say near-freezing temperatures and Himalayan winds killed at least 13 homeless people in northern India, raising the death toll from a severe cold spell to 129.

Temperatures dipped below 33 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degree Celsius) in parts of Uttar Pradesh this week, and plunged to 33 F (0.6 C) in Agra, the city where the Taj Mahal is located.

Thirteen people died in Uttar Pradesh overnight Wednesday despite welfare authorities distributing blankets and firewood, said police spokesman Surendra Srivastava.

At least 26 other people have died in neighboring Bihar and Jharkhand states and in the capital, New Delhi, during the three-week long cold snap.

Poor visibility also disrupted rail schedules across northern India, stranding thousands of people.

Flaws in flight preparation and poor pilot training led to the plane crash that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski and 95 other top officials in April 2010, Russian investigators said in a new report released on Wednesday.

"The technical commission has established that serious organizational flaws, poor pilot training and preparation of this particularly important flight at a special [Polish] air regiment base led to the catastrophe," said Tatyana Anodina, the head of Russia's Interstate Aviation Committee (MAK).

She also said the presence of Kaczynski and other high-ranking state officials on board the Tu-154 plane influenced the pilot's decision to attempt a landing in poor weather conditions and low visibility.

Investigators dismissed the poor condition of infrastructure and landing equipment at the airfield, as well as actions by air traffic controllers, as factors that could have contributed to the tragedy.

Head of the MAK technical commission Alexei Morozov said on Wednesday that air traffic controllers did not give the plane permission to land at a critical altitude of 100 meters (328 feet).

The crew was allowed to descend to 100 meters, and in line with the international rules had to make a decision whether to land or go for a second landing attempt.

"However, no reports came from [the crew], and the plane continued descending on its own," Morozov said.

In essence, the new report does not change much the conclusions of the first report released by Russian investigators in October of last year.

The first MAK report was first presented to the Polish authorities on October 20, and blamed pilot error for the crash in heavy fog, but in mid-December Poland sent it back to Moscow with 150 comments and queries. Prime Minister Tusk said that parts of the report were "unacceptable."

Polish experts said they were dissatisfied with the documents provided by Russia. Most of the complaints concerned a lack of technical details about the Severny airport in Smolensk at which the plane was due to land.

Afghan officials say a suicide bomber on a motorbike killed four people in an attack close to the country's parliament Wednesday.

Afghanistan's Interior Minister Zemarai Bashary said the blast in the capital Kabul took place near a minibus carrying Afghan intelligence personnel.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which wounded some 30 people. 

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, coalition officials and the U.S. Embassy in Kabul separately condemned the attack.

Meanwhile, a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan killed a senior Afghan intelligence officer.

The attacks came as U.S. Vice President Joe Biden completed a two-day visit to the country.

Biden was on an unannounced fact-finding mission to assess progress in Afghanistan.  He said he believed U.S. troops with local security forces are breaking the momentum of Taliban insurgents.

Biden also assured President Karzai that the United States will not abandon his country after 2014 when, under an agreement reached last year, coalition forces plan to hand over control of security to the Afghans.

NATO officials have said they expect levels of violence to remain high through Afghanistan's winter months when fighting traditionally eases as a sign that the coalition and Afghan forces are putting pressure on Taliban strongholds.

Heavy monsoon rains have forced Sri Lanka's president to abandon a visit to areas affected by severe flooding which has displaced nearly 200,000 people and killed 18 others.

Mahinda Rajapaksa had to cancel his helicopter trip from Polonnaruwa in the east to the badly affected coastal city of Batticaloa 120km (75 miles) away.

The downpour is continuing after two weeks of rain in the centre and east.

The floods have inundated farmland and destroyed rice fields.
Emergency

The eastern cities of Ampara and Batticaloa have been worst affected by the deluge, which has left some stretches of railway line under nearly a metre of water.

Officials in Ampara say the rainfall there since Saturday has been the highest ever recorded in such a short time.

A number of big reservoirs have burst their banks, destroying paddy fields in a major rice-growing area.

People in some areas have told the BBC they have seen no sign of aid agencies or government relief, and that some people in makeshift camps have been missing out on meals.

The air force has helped evacuate people and drop food supplies to some cut-off communities.

The government has made an emergency appeal for ordinary people's help in sending dry rations, mattresses and bottled water.

Clean water and food supplies have been sent by official and international agencies to the worst-hit areas.

But the deputy disaster management minister Duleep Wijesekara said some places, such as Mutur, have been difficult to reach.

"I boarded a high-speed navy boat to get there [to Mutur], but due to the huge waves we had to turn back after sailing for about 15km. After that we had to send food in by air," he added.

The floods bring a risk of disease, including the mosquito-borne dengue fever, which even in normal times is a severe problem in the country.

Akshay Kumar will soon turn into a cricketer. Yes you hear it right. For his next movie, PATIALA HOUSE, the dashing Khiladi will soon be seen playing Cricket. Doing justice to his height and his strongly built body, Akshay will be playing the role of a fast bowler. Though he has the looks to turn into an all rounder, the makers have limited his talent to Bowling in this movie.

The makers of the movie have roped in several real life cricketers to act in the movie. Players like Nasir Hussain, Brendon McCullum, Herschelle Gibbs, Kieron Pollard, Andrews Symonds, Kamran Akmal, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Graham Gooch, Wasim Akram and Matthew Hayden are supposedly said to play a part in the movie. The movie revolves around Akshay who is born and brought up in England and as such wants to play for the England Cricket team. But Rishi Kapoor who plays the role of Akshay’s father is stubborn on Akshay and forces him to play only for India. The father son duel is what engulfs the script of the movie.

The movie will see the fresh pairing of Akshay Kumar and Anushka Sharma. Rishi Kapoor will be seen playing the role of Akshay’s father. Dimple Kapadia would play the role of Akshay’s mother. Patiala House would release after Akshay Kumar’s disastrous TEES MAAR KHAN on February 11th .The Khiladi would only be hoping for a better performance at the Box Office this time around. And with cricket as a component and with World cup round the corner, PATIALA HOUSE stands a strong enough chance!

Playboy Enterprises said on Monday that it had agreed to be taken private by Icon Acquisition Holdings, a partnership run by Hugh Hefner, in a deal valuing the company at $177 million.

The offer price of $6.15 a share is 18 percent above Playboy’s closing price of $5.20 on Friday. Shares rose 17.31 percent, to $6.10, in premarket trading on Monday.

Mr. Hefner is currently the editor in chief and chief creative officer of the media company, which publishes Playboy magazine and produces television programs. He created the magazine in 1953, and took Playboy Enterprises public in 1971.

“With the completion of this transaction, Playboy will come full circle, returning to its roots as a private company,” Mr. Hefner said in a statement. “I believe this agreement will give us the resources and flexibility to return Playboy to its unique position and to further expand our business around the world.”

Mr. Hefner controls 69.5 percent of the company’s voting shares and 27.7 percent of its nonvoting shares. Plainfield Asset Management, which holds 19.05 percent of the company, has agreed to the deal.

Icon received equity backing for the deal from the private investment firm Rizvi Traverse Management, and a financing commitment from Jefferies & Company. The Playboy board unanimously approved the deal on Sunday, and it is expected to close Jan. 21.

“This would bring an end to a period of uncertainty for the company and provide the right ownership structure to develop the business,” said Ben Kohn, a Rizvi partner.

Scott Flanders, chief executive of Playboy, said that its “strategy is to transform Playboy into a brand management company.”

Playboy hired Lazard as financial adviser and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom as counsel. A committee of board directors hired Raine Securities as adviser and Kaye Scholer as counsel. Moelis served as financial adviser and Munger, Tolles & Olson as counsel to Mr. Hefner. Jefferies & Company and Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton advised and counseled Rizvi Traverse.

U.S. stock futures dropped following declines in Asian and European markets, with aluminum giant Alcoa Inc. set to kick off the fourth-quarter earnings season after the close of trading Monday.

Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 40 points to 11579 and S&P 500 index futures slipped 5.90 points to 1261.60. Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 9.25 points to 2263.75.

The blue-chip Dow index gained 0.8% last week, finishing higher for a sixth straight week.

Most European and Asian stock markets posted losses on Monday, souring sentiment ahead of the Wall Street open.

The following is a selection of the most important news affecting the oil market.

Oil Rises for First Time in Three Days as Alaskan Pipeline Shuts

Oil climbed for the first time in three days after an Alaskan pipeline carrying about 15 percent of U.S. crude output was shut following a leak.

TOP OIL MARKET NEWS

Alaskan Pipe Shutdown Cuts Oil Output by 95 Percent (Update3)

BP Plc and its partners in the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System that carries 15 percent of U.S. crude output can’t say when production will return to normal after a leak two days ago.

Morgan Stanley Says Oil to Remain High, Will Breach $100 in 2011

Crude oil will remain high this year and breach $100 a barrel because of shrinking spare capacity in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Morgan Stanley said in a research note today.

West Africa-to-India Crude Cargoes Rise 61%, Clarkson Data Show

Indian oil companies arranged to collect 61 percent more crude oil from West Africa last month, according to vessel charters collated by the research unit of Clarkson Plc, the world’s largest shipbroker.

Caspian BTC February Crude Loadings to Fall 9.8% From January

Exports of Azeri Light crude from a port in Turkey will tumble 9.8 percent next month, according to a loading program obtained by Bloomberg News.

China’s Net Crude Imports Climb After Diesel Shortage (Update1)

China, the world’s biggest energy user, increased net imports of crude oil by 1.4 percent in December from a month earlier as refineries maintained high operating rates to ease a diesel shortage.

Shale Oil Drillers Strike Rising Costs in Flight From Gas Slump

U.S. natural-gas companies are getting hit with the highest costs in four years as they shift more production to oil to escape low gas prices.

Aramco Cuts Crude Prices, Iraq Buys Gasoline: Persian Gulf Oil

Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest state-owned oil company, cut official prices for most of its crude for shipment next month, raising the formula only on Extra Light and Super Light grades to Asia. Iraq awarded gasoline and gasoil supply contracts for the first half of 2010. Refineries in Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain plan to shut for maintenance in the next several weeks.

Hedge Funds Raise Bullish Gas Bets Most in Year: Energy Markets

Hedge funds almost doubled bets on gains in natural gas as futures climbed to the highest level since August on forecasts for colder-than-normal weather.

China’s Once-Subsidized Drivers Face Gasoline Hit: Chart of Day

China, the world’s biggest new-car market, may raise gasoline prices by 20 percent this year to promote energy efficiency, according to Mirae Asset Securities Co., straining once-subsidized drivers who paid less than Americans to fill their tanks barely two years ago.

Waste Heat as Clean as Wind Deserves U.S. Help, GE Group Says

The gray steam rising from the smokestacks of industrial plants is an energy resource as green as a wind turbine or a solar panel, according to General Electric Co., the Sierra Club and the United Steelworkers union.

OPEC

Saudi Aramco to Supply Asia Full February Oil Volumes (Update1)

Saudi Arabian Oil Co., the world’s largest state-owned oil company, will supply full contractual volumes of crude to China and South Korea for loading in February, according to refinery officials in the region.

REFINERIES Map global refinery outages

Reliance Said to Shut FCC at India Refinery This Month (Update1)

Reliance Industries, owner of the world’s largest refining complex, plans to shut a fluid catalytic cracker at its facility in western India at the end of this month, a person with knowledge of the matter said.

Petroplus Reichstett Refinery Output Back to ‘Normal,’ Cgt Says

Petroplus Holding AG’s Reichstett oil refinery output is back to “normal” after workers ended a strike, according to a representative of the CGT union at the site.

Barco and FUNA International have partnered to develop projection, LED, lighting and controller systems for several entertainment venues from stem to stern on the newly launched Allure of the Seas, the world’s largest cruise ship, built by Royal Caribbean International.

Barco is supplying integrated creative lighting and projection systems for multiple live stage and cinematic shows presented on Allure of the Seas.

The 3D digital cinema theatre – the first installation on a new cruise ship – takes advantage of Royal Caribbean’s alliance with DreamWorks Animation to showcase first-run movies produced by the company. Barco’s DP2K 20-C digital cinema projector will present 2D and 3D movies in the ship’s 1,400-seat main theatre.

Working with FUNA International, a cruise ship multimedia design, engineering and integration company, Barco provided products for several entertainment venues throughout the ship. The Amber Theatre (which doubles as the 3D Cinema) presents Broadway-style shows such as “Chicago: The Musical” and “Blue Planet” using a Barco package comprised of eight DL.3Fdigital lighting fixtures, two Axon Media Servers and a Road Hog Full Boar controller. Studio B, the ship’s ice skating venue, uses four DL.3Fs and four Axon Media Servers to produce a multimedia-enhanced “How to Train Your Dragon” ice show, featuring video projections on the scenery and ice skating floor. The DL.3F features a three-chip light engine and onboard media server.

In the centre of the ship, the Royal Promenade hosts parades and other live entertainment using Barco’s Road Hog Full Boar console. The AquaTheater, an outdoor pool and stage featuring aerial acrobatics, and springboard diving, features “Let You Entertain Me,” a Madagascar-inspired show and “OceanAria,” which employs two OLite 612 LED walls (1,944 pixelsl/12 mm pixel pitch) driven by Axon Media Servers.

After her films Love, Sex Aur Dhokha and Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai became good success stories, Ekta Kapoor has partnered with Neeraj Pandey (A Wednesday) to produce a Marathi film Taaryanche Bait (literally, an island of stars.) Commented Ekta, "We are known to push boundaries in content creation, be it films or television.

This is a humble endeavour to create something for the discerning and evolved Marathi-speaking community, which has always been an important audience for our content. I look forward to the response to our first step in this direction." Neeraj adds, "This is an extraordinary story of an ordinary family – a story about miracles and hope in these cynical times. Once we heard the story we just had to do it."

Motorola is expecting strong sales of its XOOM tablet, and has ordered as many as 800,000 units for Q1 2011 alone, according to the latest supply chain leaks. According to DigiTimes, four color options make up the 700,000 to 800,000 unit orders Motorola has placed, with suppliers expecting total orders this quarter to near one million. Meanwhile, the WiFi-only version of the XOOM is now expected to arrive in April.

According to Latin America Motorola exec Maurizio Angelone, the XOOM will arrive in Argentina in WiFi-only form come April 2011, with the 3G version following on a month later. It’s not clear if the same WiFi timescale will hold for the US or other regions where the XOOM is expected to be released; Verizon has promised the 3G XOOM sometime in Q1 2011.

One of the few countries where Facebook is really struggling is Japan. The Times has a good rundown of the company's struggles there.

The main culprit? Privacy.

The Japanese are avid users of social networking, even mobile social networking, but always with usernames and avatars. Meanwhile Facebook in Japan, like everywhere else, favors real names, real pictures and real connections.

In a survey, 89 percent (!) of Japanese internet users have said they are wary of using their internet names online. Japanese social networks like Mixi and Gree (and, adding insult to injury, American rival Twitter) are huge there but Facebook is barely growing.

Facebook is really sticking to its strategy of emphasizing real names though, which is maybe the best strategy long-term. Facebook does have extensive privacy controls, although it seems the market isn't yet educated on that (heck, social networking users everywhere seem to be uneducated about privacy settings). In India, after struggling for years, Facebook has become dominant thanks to exchange students and other returning travelers who got hooked to the site overseas, and the same thing might happen there.

PUNE: Luxury car manufacturer Mercedes-Benz India Limited(MBIL) has posted its highest ever annual sales in India in the year 2010, during which it sold 5819 vehicles. This is a growth of 80 per cent over the company's sales in the previous year (2009) when it sold 3250 units.

The key growth drivers were the E–Class with 2490 units (1024units in 2009), C-Class with 2070 units (1579 units) as well as the SUV range comprising the M-Class, GL-Class and the R-Class with 523 units (140units), a media communication from the company said on Monday.

On a month-to-month basis the company's sales, at 710 units, were 115 per cent higher in December 2010 as compared with December 2009(334 unis). MBIL said the key products that contributed to this growth were the E-Class with 371 units sold (136 units in December 2009), the C-Class with 141 units sold (133 units in December 2009), followed by 127 units of the SUV segment- comprising M-Class, GL-Class and the R-Class (15 unit of M-Class in December 2009).

The media communication said its strategy for the Indian market has been focused upon offering a comprehensive product portfolio, delivering the highest value to the customer as well as ensuring world class sales, after sales and vehicle ownership experience. "These initiatives coupled with aggressive product launches and network enhancement to smaller towns and cities have reinforced the strong traction with Indian market in 2010," the media communication said.

Mozambique turned down an application from Coal India Ltd., the world’s largest producer of the mineral, for more coal blocks, Deputy Mineral Resources Minister Abdul Razak Noormahomed said.

“They must develop what they have first,” Noormahomed told reporters today in Maputo, the capital. “Then we will sit down and decide what to offer.”

Coal India, based in Kolkata, has prospecting rights to two blocks, measuring 225 square kilometers (87 square miles), and wanted rights to another five explorations blocks, Narinder Khurana, a director of Central Mine Planning & Design Institute Ltd., a unit of Coal India, said yesterday in Maputo, Mozambique’s capital. Khurana is part of a delegation, led by India’s Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal, visiting the southern African country.

The company will start exploration of the two blocks it has in June and will invest $400 million if viable deposits are found, Khurana said.

New Delhi: Indian Army Chief General VK Singh says that India has a "perceptional difference" with China over boundaries. Reacting to reports of Chinese troops having entered Ladakh, General Singh claimed that such incidents cannot be defined as intrusions.
"What has come in print media toady about so called intrusion, that particular area where this thing has been shown, is a area where there is perceptional difference of the Line of Actual Control between us and China. This has been there for very long time. Right at the time the LAC was put down on a very large scale map by China. So as per our interpretation line runs in a particular manner and as per Chinese perception line runs in a different alignment this is not marked on ground. Therefore there is always perceptional problems. I do not see it as alarming development I only see it as perception problem," said General Singh in New Delhi on Tuesday.
Chinese troops reportedly entered the Indian territory along the Line of Actual Control in South-eastern Ladakh region and threatened a contractor and his team to halt work on constructing a "passenger shed".

The state government has submitted an official report to the Centre saying that Chinese troops tried to stop construction work in the Gombir area of Demchok region of Jammu and Kashmir and also threatened locals not to carry out further work.

Jammu and Kashmir government has also taken up the issue with Ministry of External Affairs and the Minitstry of Sefence.

The alleged incident of incursion took place in September-October last year in a village about 300-kms south-east of Leh district headquarters.

When contacted, Lt Col JS Brar, who officiates as spokesperson for Leh-based 14 Corps, refused to comment on the issue.

According to the report, the civil administration proceeded on field verification to the area on October two, 2010 and on the next day, Army wrote to the administration to seek Defence Ministry's clearance for any project within 50 kms of Border.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan government today appeared divided over resuming onion exports to India with the agriculture ministry not averse to lifting the ban but the commerce ministry has some reservations.

A meeting was held in the commerce ministry on the issue and there was no decision.

Official sources said commerce minister Maqdoom Amin Fahim was out of the country and was expected back tomorrow after which there could be a meeting to review the issue.

Earlier the Ministry of Food and Agriculture had agreed to the move to continue onion exports to India because there was adequate production of onion in the country despite the floods that devastated agricultural lands across Pakistan last year, an official said.

Sources in the Indian High Commission confirmed that there has been no movement of onion consignment since the ban was imposed by Pakistani authorities last week.

Iranian border guards have released a woman they were holding who, according to some reports, was suspected of being a U.S. spy, state broadcaster IRIB reported on Sunday.

"This 34-year-old woman who intended to enter Iran at the Norduz terminal on January 5 left Iran's borders after her situation became clear and legal procedures were followed," IRIB quoted an unnamed "high ranking security official" as saying.

Conflicting news articles had suggested that the woman was either American or was suspected of working for U.S. intelligence, but the official quoted by IRIB denied reports she had been filming the border area.

Adding to the confusion, IRIB said she had been held at Norduz, on Iran's border with its northern neighbor Armenia, whereas other news agencies said she had tried to enter at Jolfa, some 50 km (30 miles) to the west, on the border with Azerbaijan.

IRIB said the woman was seeking an Iranian visa and never entered Iranian territory. She was denied entry and returned to Armenia on Saturday, it said.

The news comes at a time of high tension between Tehran and Washington, which have been in a long-running dispute over Iran's nuclear programme.

The two countries have had no diplomatic relations since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution but both will be represented at talks in Istanbul later this month which Western countries hope will address the nuclear stand-off.

Three Americans -- two men and a woman -- were arrested in July 2009 near the Iran-Iraq border on suspicion of spying. The woman, Sarah Shourd, was released on bail a of $500,000 in September and returned to the United States. She has said the three of them strayed across the border while hiking in Iraq.

Her two companions remain in jail awaiting trial, which was postponed in November due to Shourd's absence.