JAMMU: On a day of high drama, Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah today submitted his resignation to Governor N N Vohra after

A TV grab shows Omar Abdullah speaking in the J

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JAKARTA – A STRONG 6.2-magnitude quake struck Indonesia’s Sumatra island on Monday, the US Geological Survey said.

The epicentre of the quake, which struck at 6:10 am (2310 GMT, 7.10am Singapore time), was located 135 km south-east of the town of Bengkulu, on the western coast of Sumatra.

It was measured at a depth of 66.5 km.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific ‘Ring of Fire’, where the meeting of continental plates causes high volcanic and seismic activity. — AFP

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Today is the first Obama Approval Index based entirely upon polling conducted after the press conference, during which Obama made his infamous “stupidly” remark. Likely voters obviously do not approve of the president’s ObamaGates controversy – the number of likely voters who strongly disapprove of Obama’s performance has gone up 5% since the press conference (from 35% on Wednesday morning to 40% today).
The tracking Poll shows that 29% of the nation’s voters still strongly approve of Obama’s performance, but 40% strongly disapprove. Rasmussen’s Presidential Approval Index is calculated by subtracting the number who strongly disapprove from the number who strongly approve.
Rasmussen Reports presidential job approval ratings are based upon a sample of likely voters, rather than samples of all adults. Obama’s numbers are always several points higher in a poll of adults rather than likely voters because some of Obama’s most enthusiastic supporters, such as young adults, are less likely to turn out to vote.
The more likely voters find out President Obama, the less they care for him and his extremely liberal policies. According to Rasmussen, Obama is now seen as politically liberal by 76% – up six points from a month ago and 11 points since he was elected. Forty-eight percent  now see Obama as very liberal – up 20 points since he was elected.
For more info:  Obama approval index in free fall, now -8  ♦  Obama approval index falls to -5  ♦  Obama approval index falls to -3  ♦  Obama approval index turns negative  ♦  Obama’s approval rating hits yet another record low  ♦  Obama’s approval rating hits another record low  ♦  Obama’s approval rating at record low  ♦  Obama’s approval rating is dropping  ♦  The Obama first 100 days halftime report  ♦  Obama’s approval rating continues to fall

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A book on Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, written by scholar and educationist Som P Ranchan, was released by Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal.

Releasing Dalai Lama – A Study, Dhumal said: “The book would help research scholars understand Buddhism better. It has always been a pleasure and a dream come true for any person to share some moments with His Holiness.”

Born on July 6, 1935 at Taktser hamlet in northeastern Tibet, the Dalai Lama was recognised at the age of two as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama Thubten Gyatso. He fled Tibet after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, basing his Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala.

He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for his non-violent campaign for democracy and freedom in his homeland. Ever since he fled to India, he has spent his time in exile pushing for autonomy for Tibet.

The Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, has been following a “middle-path” policy that seeks “greater autonomy” for Tibetans rather than complete independence.

A total of 140,000 Tibetans now live in exile and of them 100,000 stay in different parts of India.

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An object, probably a comet that nobody saw coming, plowed into the giant planet’s colorful cloud tops sometime Sunday, splashing up debris and leaving a black eye the size of the Pacific Ocean. This was the second time in 15 years that this had happened. The whole world was watching when Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 fell apart and its pieces crashed into Jupiter in 1994, leaving Earth-size marks that persisted up to a year.

That’s Jupiter doing its cosmic job, astronomers like to say. Better it than us. Part of what makes the Earth such a nice place to live, the story goes, is that Jupiter’s overbearing gravity acts as a gravitational shield deflecting incoming space junk, mainly comets, away from the inner solar system where it could do for us what an asteroid apparently did for the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Indeed, astronomers look for similar configurations — a giant outer planet with room for smaller planets in closer to the home stars — in other planetary systems as an indication of their hospitableness to life.

Anthony Wesley, the Australian amateur astronomer who first noticed the mark on Jupiter and sounded the alarm on Sunday, paid homage to that notion when he told The Sydney Morning Herald, “If anything like that had hit the Earth it would have been curtains for us, so we can feel very happy that Jupiter is doing its vacuum-cleaner job and hoovering up all these large pieces before they come for us.”

But is this warm and fuzzy image of the King of Planets as father-protector really true?

“I really question this idea,” said Brian G. Marsden of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, referring to Jupiter as our guardian planet. As the former director of the International Astronomical Union’s Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams, he has spent his career keeping track of wayward objects, particularly comets, in the solar system.

Jupiter is just as much a menace as a savior, he said. The big planet throws a lot of comets out of the solar system, but it also throws them in.

Take, for example, Comet Lexell, named after the Swedish astronomer Anders Lexell. In 1770 it whizzed only a million miles from the Earth, missing us by a cosmic whisker, Dr. Marsden said. That comet had come streaking in from the outer solar system three years earlier and passed close to Jupiter, which diverted it into a new orbit and straight toward Earth.

The comet made two passes around the Sun and in 1779 again passed very close to Jupiter, which then threw it back out of the solar system.

“It was as if Jupiter aimed at us and missed,” said Dr. Marsden, who complained that the comet would never have come anywhere near the Earth if Jupiter hadn’t thrown it at us in the first place.

Hal Levison, an astronomer at the Southwest Research Institute, in Boulder, Colo., who studies the evolution of the solar system, said that whether Jupiter was menace or protector depended on where the comets came from. Lexell, like Shoemaker Levy 9 and probably the truck that just hit Jupiter, most likely came from an icy zone of debris known as the Kuiper Belt, which lies just outside the orbit of Neptune, he explained. Jupiter probably does increase our exposure to those comets, he said.

But Jupiter helps protect us, he said, from an even more dangerous band of comets coming from the so-called Oort Cloud, a vast spherical deep-freeze surrounding the solar system as far as a light-year from the Sun. Every once in a while, in response to gravitational nudges from a passing star or gas cloud, a comet is unleashed from storage and comes crashing inward.

Jupiter’s benign influence here comes in two forms. The cloud was initially populated in the early days of the solar system by the gravity of Uranus and Neptune sweeping up debris and flinging it outward, but Jupiter and Saturn are so strong, Dr. Levison said, that, first of all, they threw a lot of the junk out of the solar system altogether, lessening the size of this cosmic arsenal. Second, Jupiter deflects some of the comets that get dislodged and fall back in, Dr. Levison said.

“It’s a double anti-whammy,” he said.

Asteroids pose the greatest danger of all to Earth, however, astronomers say, and here Jupiter’s influence is hardly assuring. Mostly asteroids live peacefully in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, whose gravity, so the standard story goes, keeps them too stirred to coalesce into a planet but can cause them to collide and rebound in the direction of Earth.

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NEW DELHI: The number of internet users worldwide is expected to touch 2.2 billion by 2013 and India is projected to have the third largest

online population during the same time, says a report.

“The number of people online around the world will grow more than 45 per cent to 2.2 billion users by 2013 and Asia will continue to be the biggest Internet growth engine.

“… India will be the third largest internet user base by 2013 – with China and the US taking the first two spots, respectively,” technology and market research firm Forrester Research said in a report.

Globally, there were about 1.5 billion Internet users in the year 2008.

Titled ‘Global Online Population Forecast, 2008 to 2013′, the report noted that emerging markets like India would see a growth of 10 to 20 per cent by 2013.

“In some of the emerging markets in Asia such as China, India and Indonesia, the average annual growth rates will be 10 to 20 per cent over the next five years (2008-13),” the report said. India’s number of Internet users was estimated to be 52 million in 2008.

In the next four years, about 43 per cent of the Internet users globally are anticipated to reside in Asia and neighbouring China would account for about half of that population.

“… the shifting online population and growing spending power among Asian consumers means that Asian markets will represent a far greater percentage of the total in 2013 than they do today,” Forrester Research Senior Analyst Zia Daniell Wigder said.

According to the report, the percentage of internet users in Asia would increase to 43 per cent in 2013 from 38 per cent in 2008.

“The percentage of the global online population located in North America will drop from 17 per cent to 13 per cent between 2008 and 2013, while Europe’s share will shrink from 26 per cent to 22 per cent.

“The percentage of those in Asia will increase from 38 per cent to 43 per cent and Latin America will remain steady at about 11 per cent of the global total,” Forrester noted.

The report said apart from China, other Asian countries with substantial online growth rates include India, Indonesia, Pakistan, and the Philippines.

“By contrast, growth rates in some of the more mature markets such as Japan and South Korea will rise by less than two per cent each year,” it added.

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MUMBAI: A film director was arrested on Sunday in suburban Versova after he allegedly raped a girl whom he had promised a role in a film, police

said.

“The director Ramkumar Kumawat has directed some small budget films and the victim, who is about 24-year-old, had gone to audition for a role in his film some time back,” a senior police official from the Versova police station said.

After the audition Kumawat met her and promised to give her some work in his films, the official said.

About three days ago after getting no response from the director, the victim had called Kumawat again and he told her to come to his office in Versova, police officials said.

“When she went to his office, Kumawat allegedly raped her and told her not to tell anyone about the incident. However, the victim registered a case against him yesterday night following which he was arrested,” they said.

The victim has been sent for medical tests and the accused was to be produced before a local court for remand, police officials said.

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At the rate Shahid is going, he may soon be the strongest contender for the Playboy of the Year award.

Shahid Kapoor More Pics

Most people would need some time off to mourn the abrupt demise of a relationship, but Shahid isn’t particularly shedding any tears over his ex, Priyanka Chopra. Unless, of course, Anushka Sharma’s charms are the perfect healing touch.

Shahid, the posterboy for the fickle Insta-Gen X, seems to waste no time with formalities like wallowing in self-pity over the break-up or turning to spirituality for solace. After all, he is very popular with the girls. He is also shrewd about not acknowledging his relationships, as in one of his interviews with Mumbai Mirror, he had claimed that he will only make a relationship formal, if the girl he is dating is the chosen one.

So what does that mean for Priyanka? Or for that matter, Anushka Sharma, his latest in a long line of ladies? If reports from the sets of Parmeet Sethi directed YRF’s new film are to be believed, Anushka Sharma and Shahid Kapoor are an item.

Our sources from the sets of the film insist, “The film has just gone on the floors ten days ago and Shahid seems to be getting along famously with the leading lady Anushka Sharma (Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi). Shahid has also been SMSing her quite a lot and no one can even believe that Shahid is the same guy who just ended a relationship.”

The source further says, “The film is being shot behind closed doors at Yash Raj Studios and so the smitten couple think that the news won’t leak out. But obviously everyone has already started talking about it for the last couple of days.”

We messaged Shahid Kapoor and Anushka Sharma, but they predictably remained unavailable for comment.

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TIRUPATI: To paraphrase the bard, ‘Heavy lies the head that wears too many crowns.’ This is the predicament of Lord Venkateswara, the reigning

deity of Tirumala, who is weighed down by the heavy crowns donated by his rich devotees. Though a case of too much of a good thing, it’s creating a headache for the priests who are worried about the safety of the Lord.

Consider this. Not less than seven magnificent crowns make up for the jewellery kitty of Lord Venkateswara, including 11 tonnes of gold, ornaments and other precious jewels. But, what is bothering the priests and Vedic pundits is the overweight of the offerings, particularly the crowns.

A temple priest said the 8-ft Moola Viraat (the principal idol of the Lord) is adorned by not less than 60-70 kg of gold ornaments on any given day. “If the crown itself weighs over 30 kg, the chances are that cracks may develop on the presiding deity’s idol,” he said. Exacerbating the situation, temple authorities are also running out of stock of punugu (civet) and chandana (sandal) which prevent the cankers and give life to the Lord’s idol.

To lighten the burden on the Lord’s head, a priest suggested that instead of going for record-breaking crown offerings, devotees should think of donating jewels. “It’s not easy for a single priest to hold the heavy crown and place it on the Lord’s head. Lest something happens, it will hurt the sentiments of lakhs of devotees,” he pointed out.

In fact, the heavy crown headache has a past. A retired TTD official revealed that they had to remodel a “vajra kireetam” (diamond-studded crown) in 1986 to protect the deity. “The crown’s weight was around 20 kg which we thought would be a heavy burden on the Lord and reduced it to 13 kg,” he said.

He felt the devasthanams should issue an universal appeal to the devotees not to donate heavy crowns made up of gold, diamonds and precious jewels.

Even as TTD mandarins were gloating over the rich offer from an anonymous devotee from Chennai who donated a 20-kg, Rs 7.5 crore worth “vajra kireetam” sometime back, came the heaviest of them all when mining baron and Karnataka tourism minister Gali Janardhan Reddy donated a crown worth over Rs 42 crore made out of 34 kg of pure gold, studded with 70,000 diamonds and a 890-carat emerald in June this year.

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BEIJING – The solar eclipse that passed over Asia Wednesday – the longest of this century – was the 36th one Paul Maley has traveled the globe to see.

This time, he and his busload of eclipse-chasers fanned out around a half-built gas station outside Wuhan, in central China. As the moon passed in front of the sun, dogs barked and roosters crowed. Nocturnal flowers opened, only to close again minutes later. Fiery prominences shot from the aura of the sun shining behind the moon.

Dr. Maley – who runs the Astronomical Society of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston – has seen such wonders all before. But, he says, this eclipse was different, because millions of people got to see it.

“You could say that’s what made this one special. It was probably viewed by more people than ever before,” says Maley, who handed out glasses to protect onlookers from the ultraviolet rays. “Everybody seemed to have a really good time.”

ECLIPSES OFTEN PASS UNNOTICED

Solar eclipses typically are visible every six, 12, or 18 months – but can often only be glimpsed from the middle of the ocean. Maley’s eclipse-chasing has taken him from Acapulco, where saw his first total solar eclipse in 1973, to the sparsely populated Gobi Desert in western China last year.

This time, hundreds of millions of people were able to watch the eclipse firsthand, walking into the mid-morning darkness as the eclipse passed over India, across the Himalayas and southeast China, then over Japan’s southern islands.

The moon’s shadow caused Asian megacities to go from bright to dim to dark in the middle of rush hour. Police came out in force on Shanghai street corners, and Chinese media warned drivers to stay focused.

‘LIKE THE SUN WAS WEARING A DIAMOND RING’

Cities not shrouded in rain clouds were able to observe stars and planets when the moon obscured all but the sun’s ringed aura for six minutes and 39 seconds.

“At 9:11 a.m., it was completely dark,” says Xiao Wei, an office worker reached by telephone in Chongqing, southwest of Wuhan. “But around the sun, there was a ring and a light spot with white and red light, like the sun was wearing a diamond ring.”

Up in the east-coast mountains of Zhejiang Province, Adam Rosenberg of Scottsdale, Ariz., was thrilled to observe his seventh eclipse. His previous six, starting in 1998, were seen from Aruba, Hungary, Zambia, Australia, Libya, and the Gobi Desert.

“I started going on a whim but got hooked,” he says. “There’s something primal about watching the sun go out.”

His fellow eclipse-chasers hailed from Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Four of the 10 in their group were eclipse “virgins,” Rosenberg says.

CAUSE FOR CELEBRATION

So, too, was their guide, Carol Fang, who works for Hangzhou-based Absolute China Tours, one of the dozens of travel companies offering tours of at least 10 days arranged around the astronomical event. The bill: about $1,300 a head.

Ms. Fang led her group to a reservoir in Anji county, where local officials roped off the mountaintop and charged 150 yuan ($22) per person.

Fang watched with thousands of local stargazers from a free, public spot down the mountain.

“It was very, very exciting,” she says. “Everybody was quiet at first but then, as the full eclipse happened, everyone cheered. They couldn’t help it.”

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