A Jolt at Night

An earthquake takes a huge toll on the historic sites of the country

Half of a clock face on Modenesi's Towers of Finale Emilia, destroyed by the earthquake on Monday 20, 2012 in Ferrara, Italy

A powerful earthquake shook Italy’s industrial and densely populated northeast, killing at least six people, felling homes and factories and toppling church steeples. Emergency services said dozens had been injured in the magnitude-6 quake, which struck in the middle of the night, sending thousands of pople running into the streets in towns and cities across the Emilia Romagna region. Emergency Workers were sifting thought the rubble of collapsed building for victims, hours after the quake and several aftershocks struck at 4L00 a.m. Four of the dead were night-shift workers in factories which collapsed including two who were crushed when the roof of a ceramics factory caved in the town of Sant Agostno.
A 37-year-old German woman and another woman aged over 100 were reported to have died from shock. The quake caused “significant damage” to historic building as it rattled the cities of Bologna, Ferrara, Verona and Mantua, the Culture Ministry said.
Italian television showed many historic building, including churches, reduced to heaps of rubble. Cars had been crushed under falling masonry, and the Civil Protections Agency had evacuated hundreds of elderly and vulnerable people to makeshift communal shelters n Finale Emilia and towns near the epicenter. The quake’s epicenter was the commune of Finale Emilia, 369-kilometer north of Bologna, at a depth of only 5.1 kilometers.
One of the men killed in the ceramics factory collapse, Nicola Cavicchi, 35, wanted to go the seaside but because of the bad weather forecast he decided to to work to replace a colleague who was sick”, a family member said.
A 29-year-old Moroccan man was killed by a falling girder when a factory building collapsed in the small town of Ponte Rodoni di Bondeno . The body of a fourth night-shift worker was found in the early afternoon under fallen masonry at a factory in a nearby village.
The quake was felt more than 100 kilometers away in Venice, where a Colombian family on holiday in the city said they had woken in panicle when the quake shook their apartment. In Finale Emilia, firefighters rescued a five-year-old girl who was trapped in the rubble of her house after a rapid series of phone calls between a local woman, a family friend who was in New York and emergency services.
Fallen Masonry littered the streets of many towns and cities, and many historic building had cracks and fissures. The region shaken by the quake is Italy’s industrial heartland but also home to priceless architectural and art treasures. The centre old Ferrara is classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Bangladeshi Peacekeepers Across the World

The International Day for UN Peacekeepers was observed on May 29 to honor those who have died while serving as peacekeepers and those who continue to serve

Bangladesh has the biggest participation in United Nations peacekeeping operation (UNPKO) providing more than 10,000 soldiers in 45 UN missions out of 65 across the world. Bangladesh soldiers have also earned much reputation for successfully carrying out their duties, thus helping to establish peace through building close relationships with the common people of the troubled countries.
Bangladesh armed forces and police have been taking up peacekeeping jobs for a number of years now. One of the reasons is that such jobs are very rewarding and one can save enough money form a couple of years’ stint compared to what one can save otherwise including retirement benefits. Bangladeshi peace keepers have sent over 75 billion taka (USD 917 million) to their families, according to Abdul Momen, Bangladesh representative at the UN.
Bangladesh relies on remittances sent by Bangladeshis working abroad to ehlp pay for its surging imports. In 2010-2011, the expatriate Bangladeshis sent home USD 11.6 billion representing over 10 percent of Bangladesh’s gross domestic product.
It is often the hope of getting UN pasting is one of the key reasons why mid-ranking officers n Bangladesh’s powerful armed forces have lost the appetite for staging coups in the recent years. Bangladeshis soldiers have also built up a positive image of the country across the world by UNPKO, which is another reason the army personnel feel encouraged to serve on overseas missions.
The country has been hit by around 20 aborted and successful coups since its independence in 1971, most of them occurring in the decades of the 70s and 80s when Bangladeshi solders were not yet introduced to peacekeeping jobs. “Bangladeshi peacekeepers have earned a reputations for being excellent negotiators between warring factions, rebuilding schools, constructing bridges, reconstructing war-torn nations, diffusing land-mines with expertise and restoring a sense of normalcy to countries in violent conflict,” said a brigadier general of Bangladesh army under the conditions of anonymity.
Several senior Bangladeshi military officers hve been appointed as the Commander of UN peacekeeping missions,. In return the people of these nations have shown their appreciations and gratitude, naming streets after Bangladesh or ever recognizing Bengali as a second language (Sierra Leone), he said,. He further said that Bangladesh is the first Muslim country to sent female peacekeepers. The country sent a 110-strong battalion of police women unit to Haiti I 2010.
The first UN peacekeeping operations participated by Bangladesh solders was in 1988 during the Iran-Iraq war. Bangladesh Army stepped in the family of “Blue Helmet” by participating in the UNIMOG (Iran-Iraq) in 1988 with 15 military observers. Bangladesh Navy and Bangladesh Air Force joined UNPKO in 1993. Bangladesh Police followed the armed forces in 1989.
Since then Bangladeshi soldiers have gone to Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Namibia, Cambodia, Somalia, Uganda, Rwanda, Mozambique, Liberia, Sierra Leone, East Timor, Cote d’Ivoire and other violence-torn countries. Apart from the defense contingents, Bangladesh Police forces have also made long-standing contributions to the United Nations peacekeeping mission around the globe.
A total of 2,900 peacekeepers including 103 form Bangladesh, scarified their lives in various UN peace operations.
Since 2003, United Nations (UN) has been observing “International Day for UN Peacekeepers” one May 29 every year. The purpose of this day is two-fold. First one is to honor the memory of UN peacekeepers that lost their lives in the cause of peace. The second on is to pay tribute to all men and women who have served and continue to serve in the UN Peacekeeping Operations (UNPKO) for their high level of professionalism, dedications and courage.

Who or What killed Pocahontas?

Legend has it that Pocahontas saved her love John Smith form native warriors who were about to club him to death. Pocahontas is beloved to have been just twelve at the time (1607) and John Smith was twenty nice. Evidently she had a crush on him as she stopped visiting the settlement when John Smith went back to England in 1609.
In 1612 Pocahontas was taken captive by the Englishmen. In 1614 another Englishman named Jon Rolfe told her that John Smith had died and he married her. In 1616 she accompanied her husband to England and she found out that John Smith was n fact alive. Two of them met when Pocahontas, now known by her Christian name Rebecca, was deeply saddened to learn that her husband had lied to her. The day she, her son and husband were going to return to America, at the age of 21, Rebecca lapsed into a coma and died.

A Wrong Turn the Changed the World

Archduke Franz Ferdinand

The story of Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s assassination was a pivotal point in history. It set things in motion which changed the world forever. Many believe that not only did this cause WWI, but root causes of WWII, Cold War, and present day events can be traced back to June 28, 1914. The Archduke, who was the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, went on a visit to Bosnia where he was very unpopular. On June 28, while traveling in a motorcade in Bosnia, one of the would-be assassins threw a bomb at his car. The Archduke narrowly escaped the attack but insisted on visiting an aid at a hospital, who had been hurt in the blast. His driver completely unfamiliar with the road makes a wrong turn and decides to ask for directions of a young man, who was one of the conspirators involved in the foiled plot. Thus destiny gave the conspirators a second chance to kill the Archduke.

The Pioneer of Dentistry

Horace Wells took his wife out on a date on December 10, 1844. He was a dentist and the show he and his wife were going to see was going to be performed by a “Professor” Gardner Quincy Colton.  Part of the act was having volunteers from the audience inhale laughing gas. Horace immediately thought how this laughing gas could be used in dentistry. After about a dozen operations Horace’s assistant, William Morton urges him to go public with it. Reluctantly he agrees to give a lecture and demonstration at Massachusetts General Hospital. But unfortunately, it waxes a major flop. The doctors brushed him off, and considered the demonstration a “humbug affair.” Embarrassed and defeated he returned home and sold his practice. He started to experiment with chloroform which made him increasingly unhinged. He attacks two prostitutes with sulfuric acid and is sent to prison, where he commits suicide.

Game Of Thrones

After the successful first series last autumn, the viewers are eagerly awaiting for series two.

Game of Thrones

 

The return of Mad Men caused many a French wooden shutter to tremble in anticipation. My testes are more basic. Give me a sword, a dragon and a zombie any day - hence my excitement is reserved for the return of George RR Martin's Game of Thrones.
I will now put myself further to shame among my sophisticated friends by confessing that my all-time most enjoyable novel is not Sartre's Iron in the Soul, or Pynchon's V, but Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Yes, it is badly written. I agree that the characters are papaer-thin and the women sexist stereotypes. But what a plot! What a spectacle! What simple, innocent, Boy's Own excitement!
Ever since I read Tolkien's masterpiece - at the age of 14, fire times, actually - I have been hoping for a worthy successor. It has never arrive. Harry Potter is not fit to groom Gandalfs beard.
But when I tuned into the first series of Game of Thrones last autumn, I knew my search had ended. For those not aware of the story - well, it is complicated and involves a series of feuding families, notably the Lannisters, the Starks and the Baratheons, in an imagined world called Westeros. They compete for power from a series of seats in provincial stronghold empires.
Menwhile, across the sea, with the Dothraki, vicious horse-riding-Mongols, the usurped Queen Daenyris Targaryen, plots her return to the throne vacated by the usurper, the late King Robert Baratheons (who died, not unexpectedly, in suspicious circumstances). What is more she has dragons - albeit only three very small ones.
The dragons, although not an afterthought, have not yet been central to the plot. Magic and the supernatural are mentioned and occasionally hinted at, but otherwise George R R Martin is naturalistic in his approach. The subject of the series is not magic, but politics, and rarely will you see a more cynical take on the machinations of power outside The Sopranos.
The Lord of the Rings was about good and evil. Game of Thrones is largely about evil. Practically every character is treacherous, vicious or untrustworthy. The only clan member who is not an anti-hero, the principled Lord Eddard Stark, had his head - shockingly - chopped off by Joffrey, the psychopathic son of the dazzling beautiful bu evil Queen Cersei Lannister at the end of the first series. All that are left now are sullied or impotent characters.
Presumably Martin is going to have to find himself at least one hero for us to identify with, but it is quite hard to work out who it is going to be. The bastard son of Eddard amy play the part – but he is in exile and cannot participate without breaking his sacred knightly vows.
What else makes Game of Thrones so compulsive? Well, sex, for a start. The scheming Lord Littlefinger uns a tidy franchise of brothels, and the boudoir scens in which he trains his charges are as good as TV soft porn gets. And the impish dwarf, Tyrion Lannister – who has all the best lines – is a sex addict in a world where help lines have yet to be invented.
The violence is brutally, brilliantly choreographed, and the sense of spectacle overpowering. If you, like me, think a zombie with a big sward beats the slow unfolding of plot and gentle nuance of character every time, then this is the series for you.
 

Battling for the Throne…
Verily, you have not experienced convolution until you have taken a televisual wander around Game of Thrones mythical Westeros, a continent of endless internecine warfare and men in furs. But for those non-fanboys nervous about entering the fantasy fray with series two, we arm you with a rundown of the show’s main families.
 

House of Baratheon
Aka, the ruling ones. The untimely death of Mark Addy’s burly King Robert means the all-important Iron Throne is now occupied by his less burly son, tyrannical stripling Joffrey. Who is not in fact his son but the incestuous spawn of Robert’s wife, Queen Cersei Lannister, and her brother Jaime. As is the way.
 

House of Lannister
Aka, the scheming ones. Having seen off her husband via a hunting “accident”, the malevolently-eye-browed Queen Cersei is now free to impose her will via her teenage son – she hopes. Her dwarf half-brother, flagrant scene-stealer Tyrion, looks set to get power, too, after he wangles a role as the King’s chief counsel.
 

House of Targaryen
Aka, the slighted ones. Fledgling warrior Queen Daenerys Targaryen is set to invade Westeros to reclaim the Seven Kingdoms so rudely snatched away from her dad by Robert Baratheon. And you would not bet against her, as she has got three newborn dragons and a platinum blonde coiffure on her side.
 

House of Stark
Aka, the noble ones. The Starks paid for their aberrant integrity with the beheading of King Robet’s right-hand man and protagonist Ned Stark (Sean Bean) in the first series. Son Robb is out for vengeance, as he mobilizes a rebellion.

DSK Tried to Seduce France’s New First Lady

Shamed former International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn once tried to seduce France’s new First Lady Valerie Trierweiler, but she snubbed him, claims a new book. Strauss-Kahn, married to TV presenter Anne Sinclair, approached Trierweiler while she was working as a political reporter in Paris ten years ago. He asked her, “and how is the prettiest journalist in Paris?” Trierweiler, now 47, hit back swiftly, “I thought that was Anne Sinclair.”
The lates revelations have been made in a new biography by French journalists Raphaelle Bacque and Ariane Chemin. The book, called ‘Les Strauss-Khan’, also recounts how former President Nicols Sarkozy “laughed uncontrollably” when told that Strauss-Kahn had been caught with prostitutes at a woodland orgy in Paris.

Mamata’s City to Fine Cough and Spit

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Benerjee is no longer going to put up with paan and gutka stains on her favorite colors blue and white. The officials are resurrecting an eight year old law that imposes a fine of 200 rupees on spitters. But considering how upset the CM is, the penalty may be even steeper, say sources. The mayor and commissioner of police have already met to decide the quantum of fine that would act as a deterrent.
Hundreds of thousands of people in Kalkata are hooked on chewing-tobacco products and the Change oriented government is finding ti too hard to change old habits. What was ignored for years as a nuisance gave the city a scare a couple of years ago when it was revealed that betel juice and gutaka spit was corroding Howrah Bridge. Now, the spit-brigade is spoiling Mamata’s multibillion moves to turn Kalkata into a ‘blue city’.

People are More Likely to Die on Their Birthdays

Researchers who studied more than two million people over 40 years found a rise in deaths from heart attaches strokes, falls and suicides. William Shakespeare died on his birthday on April 23, 1616. The actress Ingrid Bergman also died on her birthday, in August 1982. On average, people over the age of 60 were 14 percent more likely to die on their birthdays.
Heart attacks rose 18.6 percent on birthdays and were higher for men and women while strokes were up 21.5 percent – mostly in women. Canadian data also shoed that strokes were move likely on birthdays, especially among patients with height blood pressure. There was a 34.9 percent rise in suicides, 28.5 percent rise in accidental deaths not related to cars, and a 44 percent rise in deaths from falls on birthdays. The study is published in the journal Annals of Epidemiology.

Town to Fine People for Swearing in Public

Residents of Middle-borough, a small town near Boston, voted 183-50 to approve a proposal from the police chief to impose a penalty of USD 20 on anybody who will be found guilty swearing in public. Officials insist the proposal was not intended to censor casual or private conversations, but instead to creak down on loud, profanity-laden language used by teens and other young people in the downtown area and public parks.

The measure could raise questions about constitutional free speech rights, but state law does allow towns to enforce local laws that give police the power to arrest anyone who "addresses another person with profane or obscene language" in public place. Middle-borough, a town of about 20,00 residents, has had a bylaw against public profanity since 1968.

German tourists are First to Get Their Towels Down First

British scientists found that an average Briton slept for 7 hours 21 minutes a night, before starting work at 8:50am. In contrast, German citizens, famed for getting up early to secure their sunflowers with a towel, had an average eight minutes less sleep every night and started work 30 minutes earlier.

The University of Oxford study also concluded that when Teutonic alarm clock went off it was rto arely silenced by a 'snooze button', unlike its British counterpart. It found that Germans got up 15 minutes after their alarm went off compared to those in Britain, who lazed under the duvet for an average 20 minutes. It could explain the two mysteries of Anglo-German relations: how do Germans get their beach towels on the sunloungers first and how does their country's economy countinue to outperform that of the Britons.

David Cameron Forgot Daughter in Pub

Prime minister David Cameron has a lot on his mind, particularly after the Leveson Inquiry is giving him hard time. It was proven when the beleaguered political recently left a pub named The Plough in Cadsden, Buckingham shire where the and his family had stopped before lunch. After a swift drink, they gathered their things and headed to Chequers but failed to realize that their eight-year-old daughter Nancy was in the lavatory.

Cameron shared a car with his bodyguards while his wife Samantha followed with their son Elwen, six, and daughter Florence, 22 months. Each thought Nancy was in the other car and it was only when they reached the prime minister's country residence, two miles away, that they noticed Nancy was not with them. Some social workers said that similar scenarios could warrant a visit from the authorities.

Eurozone Debt Crisis Threatens Emerging Markets

Trade finance downturn reduces flow of critical goods into and out of poor countries as banks cut back on credit. A drop in trade finance poses a threat to such companies, denying them vital lines of credit. The curozone crisis poses a greater threat to developing economies than the 2008 financial crisis and is already having a negative impact on trade finance and remittances, according to the World Bank.

The drop in trade finance and remittances, according to the World Bank.

The drop in trade finance has resulted i a reduction in the flow of critical goods into and out of emerging markets amid warnings that gaps in the agriculture and energy sectors in particular would hurt poor countries. Total global trade finance volume fell to USD 26.8 billion in the first quarter of this year, down 18 percent year-on-year to become the lowest quarterly volume since the third quarter of 2009 (USD 24.4 billion). European banks, which provide almost 80% of commodity trade finance, are likely to sell off as much as $3.8tn in assets over the next few years, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Britain to Welcome Tax-avoiding French

British prime minister David Cameron declared at the G20 summit in Mexico that Britain would open its door wide to France's rich if they flee abroad from sleep tax hikes proposed by the new French government. During this year's political campaign, France's newly-elected president, Francois Hollande, proposed hitting France's wealthy with a 75 percent tax on any annual income beyond one million euros.

Anticipating a mass exodus of French top earners, Cameron said refugees from the tax would be welcome across the English Channel. Later, the French Labor Minister Michel Sapin, also Mexico for the G20, suggested Cameron's comment had just spilled out without much forethought. Cameron, faced with his own weak economy, has resisted hiking taxes to boost state income, believing then a drag on growth, while Hollande is pushing to increase government income to help cut the French deficit and allow the government oto boost economic activity.

Telenor Signals India Cut Off if Permit Cost Soars

Norway's Telenor could exit India if license prices at an upcoming auction prove expensive, the head of the mobile phone operator's Asian operations said last week.

Telenor's Indian subsidiary is among carriers whose pemits are set to be offered again after the orginal auction was tainted by corruption. Telenor may have to find more than USD 3 billion for nationwide spectrum if regulatory proposals are accepted.

Its fast-growing Uninor subsidiary has 45 million Indian customers and is the sixth-largest provider, some two years after entering the rapidly expanding market.

Telenor must have a local company as its partner because Indian caps foreign holdings in telecoms operators at 74 percent.

Pakistani Stocks Down Following Gilani's Disqualification

Pakistan's main stock market closed down on Tuesday after the country's top court declared Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ineligible for office. The Karachi Stock Exchange benchmark 100 share index fell 0.52 percent, or 71.14 points, to close at 13,682.99points on volume of 60.75 million shares, compared to 13,754.13 on June 18.

The court ruling was announced about 45 minutes before the market closed. In April, the Supreme Court found Gilani guilty of contempt of court for refusing to reopen corruption cases against the president. Fawad Chaudhry, a senior aide to Gilani, said only parliament could dismiss the prime minister. The Pakistani rupee firmed to close at 93.88/94 against the dollar, compared to 93.97/94.04 on Monday. Overnight rates in the money market remained unchanged at 11.90 percent.

China, Emerging Powers Chipped in on IMF Firewall

Led by China, emerging economies pledged huge sums to the International Monetary Fund's global firewall, helping it raise USD 456 billion in resources as the euro zone crisis rages. In a clear statement of their new force in the world economy, rising economic powers brought some USD 95.5 billion in new money to the table for the IMF during the G20 summit in Mexico, pushing it beyond its USD 430 billion target.

But the the money also came with a warning that things had to change at the Fund, long dominated by the now troubled economic power of Europe and the United States, which itself has not contributed to the firewall. In an announcement, the IMF said China was offering USD 43 billion, Brazil, Russia, India and Mexico USD 10 billion each, USD 5 billion from Turkey, and smaller sums from a handful of other up-and-coming economies. IMF managing director Christine Lagarde said that 12 more countries offered money to the fund during the Group of 20 meeting in the Mexican resort of Los Cabos, bringing the total number of donors to 37.

Microsoft Surface vs. Apple's iPad

Microsoft's announcement about its Surface tablets left a lot of unanswered questions. One key point that will help determine how the tablet does n the market, has yet to be determined the price. The Surface comes in two flavors: a version that runs Windows RT and a version that runs Windows 8 Pro. That means only the letter will be able to run all your Windows programs, meaning that it is likely, though of certain, to get a higher price tag.

Does Microsoft's now tablet computer, Surface, stand a change against Apple's iPad? Both verious of the tablet oast 10.6 inch screens, bigger than the iPad's 9.7 inch display. The town RT versions are lighter heavier than the 1.4 pound iPad, but still impressively light. A point to Microsoft here: both versions of the Surface come with USB ports (2.0 on the RT version, 3.0 on the Windows 8 Pro model), which also account for the device's thickness. The Microsoft offered a twist: the cover is the keyboard. Users can get the Surface with 32GB or 64GB of memory on RT tablet; or pick up its big brother with 64GB or 128GB. opOverall, that is more memory on offer than the 16GB, 32GB, 64GB options you have with the iPad. Microsoft touted a strong WiFi connection on Surface, but did not mention any cellular connecitivity. The iPad, of course, has a WiFi and cellular option that runs on AT&T on Verizon networks.

Home of the Word's Riches Woman

Gina Rinehart

Gina Rinehart is now the world's richest woman, stealing the limelight form Wal-Mrt heiress Christy Walton. The Business Review Weekly has revealed its Rich 200 list, and the mining tycoon's personal fortune at USD28.48 billion has put her on the top slot. Even last March, Forbes placed Walton and her family's net worth at USD25.3 billion, while Rinehart's fortune stood at USD 18 billion. But the roles seem to have reversed in last two months. According to BRW, mining magnate Rinehart had almost tripled her wealth in 12 months as commodity prices rose and she pulled off two deals in iron ore and coal. 

Rinehart, 58, heiress to an iron ore prospection empire built in Australia's resources-rich west, is a controversial figure who stridently campaigned against new mining taxes and recently bought up big in the media sector. She is also locked in a series of lawsuits, including an acrimonious row with her own children over a family trust where she has been accused of threatening to financially ruin them.

Landmark Building to Travel on Wheels

Landmark Building

A landmark building is going to trans located roughly 60 meters to the west of Zurich and the work already started last week. The 6,200 tonne former factory was being carried in its entirely with two hydraulic pressers, 500 rollers and six sections of railway line being utilized at the rate of five meters per hour.

According to the company paying for the operation, the project to move the 80 meter long and 12 meter wide building is the largest Switzerland and Europe has ever seen. The Machine Factory Oerlikon (MFO) building was facing demolition in 2010 due to the expansion of nearby ailway lines but it was saved when the Swiss real estate company, Swiss Prime Site (SPS), decided to by it. The physical work freeing the foundations of the old factory and putting it on rolling tracks started last summer. So far SPS have spent roughly USD 12.7 million on the operation in order to preserve the Zurich landmark.

Pilot Throws Passenger Off Plane for Sexist Remarks

A female pilot ejected a passenger from the plane and then continued with the journey to the state of Goias after a one-hour delay. The male passenger allegedly said thet the edly shouted: "Someone should have told me the captain was a woman." Police came and escorted the passenger out of the aircraft, which was about to take off from Belo Horizonte airport.

It is not known if the man has been charged with anything. Trip Airlines spokesperson said it disparaging remarks made about any of the 1,400 women working for the airline.

Voters Choose Their President First Time in 5,000 Years

It is a greater joy than getting rid of president Hosni Mubarak after 30 long years, It is a greater excitement than demonstrations held at Tahrir Square. Egyptians have voted for a president on May 22-23, and if everything goes well, believe it or not, they will get to chose their leader for the first time in 5,000 years. Between kings and military dictators, Egyptians have always been ruled and their rulers were never their choice. The Egyptians are still concerned who will be their chosen leader. They are still worried if the fruits of Thahrir Square will be bitter or sweet. But they are also looking forward to which of the 13 candidates is going to be their next president.

Queen Still Enjoys Record

The British queen's diamond jubilee celebrations is drawing near and the joy of it gets further enhanced by a new Guardian/ICM poll that showed that the queen still enjoys a considerable level of popularity amongst her subjects. A mere 22 percent of respondents said that Britain would be better off without the monarchy, as against an overwhelming majority of 69 percent who said the country would be worse off. The crushing 47 point royalist margin is the largest chalked up on any of the 12 occasions since 1997 on which ICM has previously asked the identical question.

Pro-royal feeling is spread remarkably equally among the social classes and across the regions of England and Wales. It is less marked in Scotland - where 36 percent said the country would be better off without the and exWindsors - but even there a solid 50 percent felt the opposite way. Support is stronger among the older, and especially among Conservative voters, in whose ranks it reached 82 percent.

JP Morgan to Face Senate Grilling On Company Loss

Jamie Dimon has said the company's losses are likely to grow

JP Morgan boss Jamie Dimon will appear before the U.S. senate banking commitee on 7 June to answer questions about the bank's USD 2bn trading loss. Dimon has accepted a request from senator Tim Johnson, chairman of the committee, who said it should "hear directly" from Dimon about the losses at America's biggest bank. Theproblems at JP Morgan have prompted calls for tighter regulation of Wall Street. Dimon has been a vocal critic of Dodd-Frank, the act brought in after the last financial crisis to tighten financial regulation and oversight.

The committee already has a meeting slated for 6 June, and Johnson has said he would be asking regulator scheduled to appear "to update the committee on the recently reported trading loss by JP Morgan Chase".

Are You Paying to Keep Oil Firms Profitable?

Amid protests over Indian's steepest-ever petrol price hike last week many Indians are asking whether the government is milking the common man to keep its oil companies profitable. Each time, you fill your car with a liter of petrol in Delhi, the Center gest richer by 14.78 rupees and the state govermment earns another 12.20 rupees.

In 2010-11, the Centro and state governments netted 1028.25 billion rupees as taxes collected from the petroleum products you bought. During the year, one in every six rupees (16 percent) of the Center's tax revenues came from levies on petrol products customs duty on crude and excise on products.

Thus, while the government is bolstering its own revenues by high taxes on petroleum products, it is also using part of these revenues to prevent the firms balance sheets from slipping into red. The combined profit after tax (PAT) of the three oil firms during 2010-11 stood at 105.31 billion rupees and 130.50 billion rupees in 2009-10. According to the government, a higher fuel prices are needed to cut the ballooning subsidy bill.

The U.S. Economy Afloat on Auto Sales

Vehicle purchases by consumers alone accounted for 30 percent of all the GDP growth in the U.S. economy the last two quarters. As a matter of fact, cars are driving the recovery. Auto analysts were expecting another record month of car sales in May. TrueCar.com has announced that it was predicting the highest monthly level of vehicle sales since 2007, up 32 percent since this time last year.

The auto sales this year are  still expected to be way below the long-term average for the 2000s (million units versus. about 14.5 16.6 million). Unless Americans are planning to give up driveing en masse, that hope for the economy is that there are still a whole lot of vehicles out ther that are rapidely aging and eventually need to be replace.

Jindal to Drop USD 2.1 Billion Bolivia Plan

Naveen Jindal

Naveen Jindal-led Jindal Steel and Power's (JSPL) ambitions USD 2.1 billion investment plan in Bolivia is all but over as the company has said it is "not hopeful of continuing" with the project, which was touted as the biggest foreign investment plan in the Latin American country. Through its subsidiary Jindal Steel Bolivia (JSB), the company had in 2007 secured 40-year development rights to the El-Mutun iron ore mine, which holds reserves of around 20 billion tonnes, considered to be one of the largest untapped iron ore deposits in the world. However, with no commitment from the Boivian government over supply of natural gas - which is critial for the project - ti seems to be headed for a failure.

Facebook's IPO Debacle

Facebook stock has lost 20 percent of its value in only three days. In that alone, it is not remarkable. Large IPOs rarely perform well just after going public. What marks Facebook stand out is that, at nearly every junction where wisdom, care and moderation ought to have intervened, they did not. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's CEO, made it clear for months that he disdained the company's IPO, and deigned to show up to only one meting with potential investors. That could not have done much to convince those investors to believe that Facebook took the Wall Street system seriously enough to give them a good return on their investment.
It is alleged that executives and insiders made the IPO primarily a way to enrich their won fortunes - rather than the company's and their stock dump accounted for 57 percent fo the shares sold in the offering (reinforcing the old joke that ""IPO" stands not for "initial public offering", but "insider profit opportunity") To pour more money in the pockets of these insiders and the company coffers, Morgan Stanley, the lead underwriter, hiked the price the company was charging investors - USD 38 - and flooded the market with tens of millions of extra shares. (The investment bank then had to rush back into the market and buy millions of those hares to artificially support the price of the stock on the first day.)
There was also incompetence. Nasdaq, the company's chosen exchange, froze up and delayed the IPO three times in the space of an hour because it could not handle the volume of orders from investors - a good number of whom appeared to be rushing for the exits to sell the stock. And finally, there may have been something in violation of securities laws. The most respected publications in the US reported that Facebook's chief ninancial officer tipped off research analysts at the company's there biggest banks that its upcoming financial results would be lower then expected. The analysts ten took the incredibly rare move of tipping off large investors to the specific negative impact this would have on Facebook's stock.

Apple Chief Opts Out of USD 75 Million Dividend

Apple chief executive Tim Cook has opted to forgo the USD75 million dividend payments that the was set to earn on the one million shares he had received from the company. Cook, who took over from Apple's late co-founder Steve Jobs in August last year, was awarded one million restricted stock units (RSUs) for running the company during Jobs medical leaves.

Apple said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission Cook had asked the company to be excluded from a program through which employees could accumulate dividends on their RSUs that were still vesting. With Apple's share price at more than USD 565 a share, Cook's shares are worth more than USD 500 million. Half of these shares will vest in 2016 and the rest in 2021.