LAHORE: Indian involvement in the terror attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team cannot be ruled out, Lahore Commissioner Khushro Pervaiz was quoted as saying Tuesday. Pervaiz also said that security officials had successfully protected the Sri Lankan team, Geo TV reported. 

India was trying to weaken Pakistan, added Gen (retired) Hameed Gul, a former chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). 

He told Geo News that India wanted to declare Pakistan a terrorist state and the firing on the Sri Lankan team was related to that conspiracy. 

Six escorting security personnel were killed and six Sri Lankan cricketers as well as the assistant coach were injured when the team cavalcade was targeted by heavily armed gunmen close to the Gaddafi Stadium while they were going to play the third day of the second Test against Pakistan. 

Reacting to the attack, India’s foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee said in New Delhi: “The terrorism infrastructure facilities available in Pakistan must be completely dismantled and the perpetrators (of the attacks) brought to justice, otherwise perpetration of these types of incidents will take place. 

“I request the Pakistani authorities not to divert the attention of the international community, but to take courage in both hands and dismantle the terrorism infrastructure and take stiff measures against the perpetrators. Only then will such issues be adequately addressed.”

Washington, Mar.2 (ANI): US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said that he finds President Barack Obama more analytical on issues than former President George W Bush.

Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press”, Gates said: “It’s hard to say. I think probably President Obama is somewhat more analytical, and he makes sure he hears from everybody in the room on an issue, and if they don’t speak up, he calls on them.”

In contrast, President Bush didn’t go out of his way to elicit input from those in the room, Gates said.

Gates believes the possibility that the plan to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of 2011 would change is “fairly remote,” but noted that President Obama has the authority to alter the plan.

He also said that field commanders would have preferred keeping current troop levels through the end of 2010.

Currently, all combat forces are expected to be out of Iraq by August 31, 2010, with up to 50,000 troops remaining in advisory capacities.

Gates is the first Secretary of Defense to have served under presidents of both parties. (ANI)

Both McAfee and Trend Micro are warning about a recent bump in the use of SEO (search engine optimization) abuse as a tool in the spread of malware.

Google Trends is a site that tracks the most popular search terms on Google. As I type here the most popular search is “obama budget“. This isn’t exactly new, but some outfits using the web to push malware are using Google Trends to find terms for their sites in order to get them into the searches of the most users possible.

Both Trend and Mcafee were tipped by a recent event in which searches on a Facebook worm called “Error Check System”. The worm was an interesting problem all by itself (the Trend Micro entry talks more about the worm, the Mcafee entry more about the SEO abuse), but what was really interesting is that if you Googled “Error Check System” you were pushed links to malware-infested sites. The recent GMail outage produced a similar problem; Googling “Gmail Down” got you lots of malware.

In all these cases, as with other recent attacks such as the eWEEK attack, the end result was to push rogue anti-malware to the user. This really does seem to the star of the malware world in that it directly brings in money.

Bangalore : BBMP is faced with a volley of questions on property tax calculation for residential complexes. At an interactive meeting 

of officials and resident welfare associations held last week, the most asked questions were on apartments and parking slots. 

Here is a sample: “Only super built-up area of the apartment is mentioned in the sale deed. I have also purchased a stilt car park space. How do I calculate area of and tax for the car park?” Here goes the answer: “Normally super built-up area does not include car park area, unless specifically mentioned in the schedule to the sale deed. If it is included, you can measure the actual car park area and deduct it from the super built-up area and avail 50% of the UAV prescribed for the zone and its status (tenanted or owner-occupied).” 

If the car park area is not specifically mentioned as included in the schedule to the sale deed, you cannot deduct it from the super built-up area, but have to calculate and compute it separately in the tax at 50% of the UAV prescribed. 

How are slums taxed? 

All slums notified by the KSCB and BBMP have a lump sum tax of Rs 80 plus cess, if the built-up area does not exceed 300 sq ft. If it exceeds, zone classification applies. While majority of the slums are in F Zone, a very small percentage may have changed zone due to improvements in the area. Irrespective of shift in zones, only one shift is considered for this block period. A shift from F Zone therefore cannot go to D zone but only E zone. For houses that don’t have hakku patra, BBMP will not collect property tax, irrespective of the number of years they may have been in existence. 

SAMPLE QUERY 

Query from a senior citizen, Dinesh Gudibande: “I have a property at BTM Layout with ground floor and first floor. The ground floor has been rented out to a recognized educational institute (distance education) for the past 6 years. So far, I have not claimed any exemption in tax for educational institute, as per KMC Act Section 110 (i) (b). I would like to claim exemption for 2008-09. Kindly let me know the procedure.” 

BBMP’s deputy commissioner, taxation, U A Vasanth Rao, replies: “The benefit of exemption under Section 110 is available to such institutes/organizations owning the premises. Since in your case the premises is on rent, you are not entitled for exemption under the said section. You therefore will have to pay property tax as per your zone classification for residential use for the portion occupied by you and at non-residential rates for the portion let out.

The adage ‘Make hay while the sun shines’ is surely being taken seriously by Darsheel Safary’s business manager, Shobha Sant. Recently, Shobha asked producer Ajay Monga to pay Darsheel Rs 1.25 crore if he wanted the child artiste to be part of his forthcoming film, Padduram. 

Plum films as well as endorsement offers started pouring in for the 11-yearold Darsheel after the success of Taare Zameen Par. Suddenly, Darsheel was everywhere— sometimes as the chief guest at functions or as designer Neeta Lulla’s showstopper during the Lakme Fashion Week. To make things more interesting, Taare Zameen Par was also selected as India’s official entry to the Oscars in the foreign language category. 

Monga says that he met Darsheel in the presence of his business manager, Shobha Sant and his mother, Sheetal at Yash Raj Studios on Friday. “I am keen that Darsheel should do my film. But, I am making a small budget film worth Rs 1.5 crore. Paying Darsheel Rs 1.25 crore makes my film an unfeasible proposition. Aaj kal to bade bade stars ki picture nahin chalti hai,” said Monga. 

When contacted, Shobha initially denied that she had met Monga on Friday, but later said, “I met Ajay for a different reason. I was sitting with Ajay at Yash Raj Studios but that was for a totally different reason. Darsheel and his mother were present at the venue but that was simply because he was rehearsing for his performance at the Filmfare Awards.” 

When asked to comment on Darsheel’s fee, Shobha said, “I don’t want to comment on that. We haven’t yet discussed money with Monga since we haven’t seen the script yet.” She quickly added, “Let me call you back.” That call never came. 

Responding to Shobha’s claim that she met Monga for an altogether different reason, Monga said, “What different reason is Shobha talking about? Yes, I have not given them the script as yet but we have already discussed the money.” 

This is perhaps not the first time that Darsheel’s price has been quoted at over Rs 1 crore. Not so long ago, we had heard that Darsheel did not do Nikhil Panchammiya’s Mastang Mama. Panchammiya, who couldn’t afford Darsheel’s high fee, went on to sign child artiste, Tanay Cheda who played 

Darsheel’s friend (the boy on crutches) in Taare Zameen Par and the middle Jamal in Slumdog Millionaire. 

As for those who feel that Darsheel is too young to be charging Rs 1.25 crore per film, since when does talent or money have a minimum age limit?

MUMBAI: Shares of the country’s largest private sector firm, Reliance Industries, on Monday opened in the negative territory, while its refining subsidiary Reliance Petroleum started the day on a bullish note on the Bombay Stock Exchange. 

The board of directors of Reliance Industries and Reliance Petroleum on Monday approved the merger of the two firms, creating one of the world’s largest petrochemical entity and offered the shareholders of RPL one RIL share for every 16 shares held by them. 

Shares of Reliance Industries opened down 1.24%, then dipped further to touch an intra-day low of Rs 1,213.20, a fall of 4.09% from its last closing price. 

Meanwhile, shares of RPL opened up 7.61% on the BSE, and touched its intra-day high of Rs 82 after the board approved the scheme of amalgamation. 

“The share swap ratio was in favour of RPL and this got reflected during the opening trade on bourses,” Arun Kejriwal, director of Kejriwal research and investment services, said adding that at present both the shares would move according to broader market sentiment. 

Markets have adjusted to the share price difference and are ruling at par now, from here onwards shares of both the companies Reliance Industries and Reliance Petroleum would move in “uni-direction”, Kejriwal added.