'Bush impressed with our experiments in democracy'

October 3, 2005 By Desh Kapoor

News Source: rediff.com News Highlight: As President Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addressed the joint press conference at the White House, India's National Security Adviser M K Narayanan passed a slip of paper with the words 'civilian reactors' clearly visible to United States Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns. Clearly, despite what the president and prime minister were telling us that morning, the deal was not done as yet. That exchange of paper is said to have finally ensured that the Americans and Indians were finally on the same page after so many years of mutual suspicion and occasional bitter hostility. URL of the news item: http://us.rediff.com/news/2005/oct/03inter1.htm?q=tp&file=.htm Read more

NTL to buy rival Telewest

October 3, 2005 By Desh Kapoor

URL Link: http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=businessNews&storyID=2005-10-03T153655Z_01_MOR242436_RTRUKOC_0_UK-MEDIA-TE Highlights: Cable operator NTL has agreed a long-awaited deal to buy smaller rival Telewest for $6 billion (3.4 billion pounds) in a move to compete more effectively with the likes of BSkyB and BT . NTL said on Monday it is paying $23.93 -- $16.25 in cash and 0.115 NTL shares -- for each Telewest share, confirming a weekend Reuters report on the deal. It is also taking on 1.7 billion pounds of Telewest debt. The companies, both listed on the U.S. Nasdaq exchange, have customers in about 5 million UK households, compared with nearly 8 million for BSkyB. The company will also be Britain's second-largest residential telephone company behind BT Group. Source: Reuters Read more

Counting on a Miracle With U.S. Debt

October 3, 2005 By Desh Kapoor

URL Link: http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB112794784818255155-TAeC6fqHPk7KpntH9QcotGzv9Lk_20060929.html Highlights: In science-fiction movies, no obstacle is too big to overcome. The brilliant, determined scientist finds a way to divert the asteroid before it collides with Earth. In real life, some problems are so daunting they are ignored until the collision occurs. The inadequacy of New Orleans's levees and the erosion of its barrier islands offer one painful example. The U.S. economy's increasing debt to the rest of the world offers another The U.S., a creditor country just 20 years ago, now owes the rest of the world $2.5 trillion (if you net out U.S.-owned assets abroad with foreign-owned assets in the U.S.). The U.S. this year will borrow from abroad a sum equal to 6% of its output of goods and services, more than in any year in the past 135 for which data are available. Source: WSJ.com Read more

Credit-card delinquencies hit record

October 3, 2005 By Desh Kapoor

URL Link: http://money.cnn.com/2005/09/28/pf/debt/delinquencies/index.htm Highlights: Hit by rising gasoline prices, a record percentage of credit-card accounts were delinquent in the second quarter, the American Bankers Association reported Wednesday. The ABA found that the 4.81 percent of credit-card accounts had payments that were past due by 30 days or more between April and June. That's up from 4.76 percent in the first quarter, which was the previous record. The ABA started tracking delinquencies in 1973. The ABA also noted an increase in delinquent payments on personal loans, auto loans, home equity loans and lines of credit. A key reason for the increase: the strain of higher gas prices. Source: CNN Read more

Dr Doom expects trouble between US and China

October 3, 2005 By Desh Kapoor

URL Link: http://transcripts.businessday.co.za/cgi-bin/transcripts/t-showtranscript.pl?1127589415 Highlights: Swiss-born Hong Kong-based economics expert Dr Marc Faber says that the US and Chinese may yet end up at war over dwindling oil reserves. Dr Faber is author of the Gloom, Doom and Boom Report - and author of bestselling book Tomorrow’s Gold. Classic Business Day speaks to Dr Doom, in South Africa to address an investors’ conference LINDSAY WILLIAMS: I was lucky enough to MC a conference in Cape Town yesterday at which Dr Marc Faber was the keynote speaker - forthright views were forthcoming on a variety of subjects ranging from commodity prices to George W Bush and Russia! Marc, I enjoyed your 35-minute address yesterday - we’ve only got 10-minutes today. Can we start with commodities - are we still in the midst of a bull market in commodities? Source: Business Day Read more

Demystifying the World of Options

October 3, 2005 By Desh Kapoor

URL Link: http://www.thestreet.com/pf/options/stevensmith/10244885.html Highlights: Like politics and religion, options are not a safe topic for conversation in polite company. Entrenched beliefs, misconceptions and different agendas tend to cloud the discussion. The battle lines are usually drawn along the subject of risk, both real and perceived. As someone who writes an options column, I obviously belong to the camp that believes options are a valuable investment tool that, when properly utilized, can both boost returns and reduce risk. That said, I acknowledge the validity of many of the arguments made against options. Perhaps pointing out the most common pitfalls, rather than proselytizing on the benefits, is the best approach to bring some evenhandedness to the subject. Source: TheStreet.com Read more

Arctic Ice is Melting

October 3, 2005 By Desh Kapoor

URL Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/29/science/29ice.html?pagewanted=print Highlights: The floating cap of sea ice on the Arctic Ocean shrank this summer to what is probably its smallest size in at least a century of record keeping, continuing a trend toward less summer ice, a team of climate experts reported yesterday. That shift is hard to explain without attributing it in part to human-caused global warming, the team's members and other experts on the region said. The change also appears to be headed toward becoming self-sustaining: the increased open water absorbs solar energy that would otherwise be reflected back into space by bright white ice, said Ted A. Scambos, a scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo., which compiled the data along with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Source: New York Times Read more

Top Graduates Line Up to Teach to the Poor

October 3, 2005 By Desh Kapoor

News Source: New York Times News Highlight: Lucas E. Nikkel, a Dartmouth graduate, wants to be a doctor, but for now he is teaching eighth-grade chemistry at a middle school in North Carolina, one of nearly 2,200 new members of Teach for America. "I'm looking at medical school, and everybody says taking time off first is a good idea," he said. "I think I'm like a lot of people who know they want to do something meaningful before they start their careers." For a surprisingly large number of bright young people, Teach for America - which sends recent college graduates into poor rural and urban schools for two years for the same pay and benefits as other beginning teachers at those schools - has become the next step after graduation. It is the postcollege do-good program with buzz, drawing those who want to contribute to improving society while keeping their options open, building an ever-more impressive résumé and delaying long-term career decisions. URL of the news item: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/02/education/02teach.html?incamp=article_popular&pagewanted=print Read more

Lifting the veil: 'Look beyond Sania's skirts'

October 3, 2005 By Desh Kapoor

News Source: Indian Express News Highlight: Ruby Rizvi is a kamdaani worker. For a day’s labour in which she risks cutting her over 1/2 tola of metallic wires, she gets just Rs 30 while a man doing the same work takes home Rs 50. For intricate work on a sari, she gets just Rs 10 while her male counterparts get Rs 90. Shakila of Mandiaon is a widowed chikankari worker with four children. Her failing eyesight has forced her to give up her craft and work as a maid. Her children are employed in ‘‘aari zardozi addas’’, earning anything between Rs 10-15 per day. They want to study but her scant resources makes that difficult. Putting together two daily meals is an effort. URL of the news item: http://www.expressindia.com/ Read more

Development of this portal towards an end…

October 3, 2005 By Desh Kapoor

Now this site seems to have enough functionality that I had required in any of my portals. There is some more stuff that I would like to add but that will have to take a little time. I have added a lot of tools that I have not activated because they didnt work well.. maybe one day when those tools have stabilized I will use them here.. until then enjoy my experiment at a personal portal. Read more