US President Barack Obama topped 10 million fans on Facebook but not before pop star Lady Gaga became the first person to break the 10-million mark on the social network.

"Thank you for helping President Obama reach 10 million supporters on Facebook," Organising for America, Obama's political arm, said in a message. "Let's continue the work of bringing change to our country," it said. "Ask your friends to join as well."

Lady Gaga become the first living person with more than 10 million Facebook fans over the weekend - a Michael Jackson remembrance page has attracted more than 14 million fans. Lady Gaga, who is as well-known for her bizarre outfits as her chart-topping music, had 11.1 million Facebook fans yesterday.

Lady Gaga's Twitter account, @ladygaga, has also attracted more followers than Obama's @barackobama account, which, like his Facebook page, is managed by Organising for America. The @ladygaga account has 4.79 million followers while @barackobama has 4.47 million.

The official White House account, @whitehouse, has a mere 1.78 million followers. Lady Gaga may have topped Obama on Facebook and Twitter but another pop star holds the title for largest number of followers on the micro-blogging service - Britney Spears, who has 5.28 million followers for @britneyspears.
 

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Soccer ace Cristiano Ronaldo has paid a whopping 10 million pounds to the mother of his baby in order to buy her silence, according to pals.

The 25-year-old is said to have transferred the amount to her in return for her giving up any rights to see the child and swearing her to total secrecy.

"He paid nearly a year's wages but it's more than worth it. He's called it the most expensive day of his life, but at least he has sole custody," the Sun quoted a source as saying.

Even Ronaldo's son will not know the identity of his mother until he is old enough to understand.

A source described the mum as 'a party girl' and not someone the footballer would 'settle down' with.

But rumours are abuzz that she is an American surrogate mum - and the pregnancy was deliberate.

The baby boy - born on June 17 - is staying with Ronaldo's family in Portugal's Algarve.

He wants his mum Dolores and sister to help raise his son.

Meanwhile, Ronaldo has dismissed rumours that his lingerie model girlfriend Irina Shayk, 24, is upset over the child.
 

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Dubai one of the premium world aviation hubs has said no to full-body scanners at the airports, saying it was violative of privacy of passengers.

The use of these scanners hampers the movement of passengers and invades their privacy, Brigadier Ahmed bin Thani, Director of the Airport Security Department of the Dubai Police said.

The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has not instructed airports to use them on passengers, but airports in some countries, especially in the West, are using them, he said.

According to Ahmed bin Thani, the other devices used in the airport can ensure safety and security. He said his department has made preparations to handle the summer rush. Employees of the Department of Naturalisation and Residency have been trained to speed up the procedures.

Bin Thani said the passengers also must show responsibility by abiding by the laws for ensuring smooth movement. They must not indulge in banned practices like carrying sharp tools and batteries in shoes, more than 100ml of milk or liquids in hand luggage, drugs or any other objects that would affect passengers' safety.
 

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Woman alleges father-in-law asked her to join flesh trade for giving birth to girls

 
In-laws to outlaws? Parveen alleges her husband and father-in-law have been harassing her for dowry. Pic/mid day
 
Assaulted by her drug-addict husband, abused by her in-laws, Parveen (28) finally decided to give up on her marriage, after enduring the torture for ten long years. Parveen married Mohammad Nasir (32), the son of Mohammad Islamuddin (52), a Delhi police sub-inspector, in 2000. After sometime, she realised her husband was an alcoholic; on objecting to it she was beaten up.

"Before my marriage even my family members were not aware of Nasir's profile. A few days after the wedding I came to know that he was a drunkard. I objected but he didn't stop. He beat me up and later started torturing me for dowry. After a year, I gave birth to a girl; Nasir and his father got very angry. Three years later I gave birth to my second daughter, and the situation became worse. Nasir and his cop father often tortured me for my daughters," said Parveen.

Four years ago Parveen gave birth to a boy. But the countenance of her in-laws didn't change. After a few days, she came to know that Nasir had started taking drugs.

"One day I saw Nasir in the balcony and he was putting something into his cigarette. I discovered that he had started taking drugs. I would beg him for some money for the school fees of my daughters but he refused, instead blaming me for giving birth to girls. When I asked his father for money, he told me to get out of the house. He even threatened to kill me and said he would send my children to an orphanage," Parveen added.
The torture wasn't over. Sometimes her in-laws pushed Parveen out of the house.

"They even forced my children to go with me. But when I returned, Nasir alleged that I was having affairs with the people I had stayed with during that time. I wanted money for education and food for my children, so when I begged them again Nasir and his father told me get into prostitution (Bachcho ke liye paise chahiye toh jakar dhanda kar le)," Parveen added.

Parveen finally left her husband's residence and shifted to her mother's home in Jafarabaad area. Then, she decided to teach Nasir and his father a lesson and approached the Delhi Women's Commission. "After suffering 10 years of torture, I decided to take action against them. I left their house with my children but Nasir threatened me that his father is a cop and I cannot do anything. But still I went to the Delhi Women's Commission for justice. I have three kids and I want their life secured and I will fight for my rights," Parveen added.

The commission had ordered the accused father and son to appear on July 6, but none of them were present on the due date. "We have again sent them a notice to appear on August 2. And if they ignore the order this time, we will seek the help of the police," said M S Sachdeva, member of Delhi Women's Commission. When approached by MiD DAY, the victim's husband refused to comment on the matter.
 

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A car which can be driven by the people without eyesight could be available by next year, The Telegraph newspaper said here quoting US researchers.

Experts at the National Federation of the Blind and Virginia Tech are working on a prototype equipped with technology that will help a sightless person sit behind the wheel in 2011.

The technology, called non-visual interfaces, will guide its driver through traffic by transmitting information about nearby vehicles or objects, the paper said.

Vibrating gloves or streams of compressed air directed towards the driver are among the options for communicating the information needed to avoid collisions and reach a destination.

Advocates for the blind describe the project as a "moon shot", drawing parallels with President John F. Kennedy's pledge to land a man on the moon.

"We're exploring areas that have previously been regarded as unexplorable," said Mark Maurer, president of the National Federation of the Blind. "We're moving away from the theory that blindness ends the capacity of human beings to make contributions to society".

Maurer first came up with the idea about a decade ago when he launched the organisation's research institute.

"Some people thought I was crazy, and they thought, 'Why do you want us to raise money for something that can't be done?' Others thought it was a great idea," he said. "Some people were incredulous. Others thought the idea was incredible".

Virginia Tech created a dune buggy as part of a feasibility study that used sensor lasers and cameras to act as the eyes of the vehicle. A vibrating vest was used to direct the driver to speed up, slow down or make turns.

The results will be demonstrated in January on a modified Ford Escape sport utility vehicle at the Daytona International Speedway.

The vehicle will use non-visual interfaces to help a blind driver operate the car.

One interface, DriveGrip, uses gloves with vibrating motors on areas that cover the knuckles. The vibrations guide the driver when and where to turn.

Another interface, AirPix, is a tablet about half the size of a sheet of paper with multiple air holes, almost like those found on an air hockey game.

Compressed air coming out of the device helps inform the person of his or her surroundings, essentially creating a map of the objects around a vehicle. It would show whether there was another vehicle in a nearby lane or an obstruction in the road.

Dennis Hong, a mechanical engineering professor at Virginia Tech who leads the research, said the technology could one day help a blind driver operate a vehicle but also could be used on conventional vehicles to make them safer or on other applications
 

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Pakistani law enforcement agencies have arrested 12 suspects in connection with the twin suicide bombings at a famous Sufi shrine in Lahore, an official said.

 Pakistani policemen pray at Data Darbar following deadly suicide bomb attacks on July 1. Pic/AFP photo
 The suspects included "suicide bombers and their handlers," a Punjab government spokesman said. "They are key members of gangs involved in major incidents of terrorism in the province."

Those arrested included terrorists and their accomplices who were allegedly involved in attacks on other places of worship and on a mosque at Parade Lane in Rawalpindi. "Valuable information about terrorist gangs has also been received," he added.

More than 40 were killed and over 200 injured when two suicide bombers blew themselves up on Thursday night in Data Darbar, the shrine of Persian Sufi saint Ali Hajweri, considered the patron saint of Lahore. Meanwhile, police said 20-year-old Indian Muhammad Rafiq alias Usman was mistaken for a suspect when he was in fact, a victim. 
 

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A Saudi Arabian man has set a Guinness World Record by eating 22 live scorpions, a media report said.

Majed Al-Maliki ate 22 live scorpions Jan 22 in Riyadh. He beat the previous record of eating 21 scorpions by US's Dean Sheldon, Geo TV reported on Monday.
 

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Rail operations in India, especially in the east, were severely affected on Monday as 73 trains were cancelled and 192 disrupted on account of the day-long shutdown called by the opposition to protest the hike in fuel prices and high inflation.

Among the trains cancelled, 59 were mails and express services, while 14 were passenger carriages. In addition, 174 other trains could not complete their journeys in time, 12 were terminated ahead of final destination and five were diverted or rescheduled.

Giving the statistics, a spokesperson for Indian Railways said operations were mainly affected in north-east, east, south-east and north-frontier parts of the country. "The operations in other parts of the country were by and large smooth," he said.

Some of the important trains cancelled on Monday included Ranchi-Shatabdi Express, Black Diamond Express, Poorva Express, Shantiniketan Express, Asansol Inter-City Express, Toofan Express, Bhagirathi Express, Howrah-Malda Express and Varanasi Express.

"We had issued a prior alert asking our employees to report to their stations either early in the morning or previous evening itself. Every possible step is being taken to restore normalcy at the earliest," the spokesperson said.

The Indian Railways - the second largest railroad network under a single management - runs as many as 10,000 passenger trains daily, covering a distance of 64,219 km, to ferry 1.8 million passengers.

"The ministry has also appealed to the protesters to spare Indian Railways, since it is the lifeline of the country, providing essential services to the underprivileged people and those needing its services during emergencies," the official said.

Incidentally, among those who had called for the daylong shutdown was the Socialist Unity Centre for India, a prominent alliance partner of Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress.

The Left parties and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) were protesting the hike in fuel prices after the federal government ended curbs on petroleum pricing last month and hiked the prices of transport and cooking fuels.

The price of diesel, as a result, went up by Rs 2 a litre, kerosene by Rs 3 a litre, petrol by Rs 3.50 a litre, and cooking gas by Rs 35 per cylinder. But Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee ruled out a rollback.

All the apex chambers also appealed to the protesters to take recourse to other forms of protests, as the worst affected in such shutdowns were daily wagers even as it disrupted the movement of essential goods from one place to another.

While the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) estimated the loss on account of the day-long shutdown at Rs 3,000 crore (over $650 million), the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) pegged it two-and-a-half times higher.
 

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Bharat Bandh on Monday partially disrupted economic activities with commodity markets and the transport sector taking a hit in many parts of the country, and the industry pegged losses at up to Rs 13,000 crore.

While Mumbai, the financial capital of the country, and several industrialised states including Maharashtra, Gujarat, were affected, the impact was partial in many other states like Tamil Nadu and in the national capital Delhi.

The 12-hour strike was called by the Opposition parties to protest the fuel price hike and rising inflation. "The bandh is estimated to have cost the nation close to Rs 13,000 crore in terms of GDP loss," industry chamber FICCI said in a statement.

Another industry body ASSOCHAM put the losses at Rs 10,000 crore, while CII pegged it at Rs 3,000 crore. Wholesale commodity markets remained shut in most of the cities, while several flights from key airports like Mumbai were cancelled.

According to the All-India Motor Transport Congress, six lakh vehicles were off the road. Though the screen-based stock market remained open, the trading volume at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) was down 52 per cent to Rs 2,857 crore against a daily average of nearly Rs 6,000 crore.

According to reports by industry chambers like FICCI and ASSOCHAM, thin attendance was witnessed in commercial establishments in several states, while the economic activity came to a complete halt in states like West Bengal, Gujarat and Kerala.

FICCI said most of the industrial activities remained shut in Bangalore and majority of MNCs and IT firms preferred to give a holiday to their employees. In Mumbai, transport services were completely affected and traders were mostly off the market.

The PHD Chamber catering mainly to the northern states, said the impact was felt in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and UP. Banking services were completely paralysed in Left governed West Bengal and Kerala while some disruptions were noticed in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Mumbai.

The industry leaders including Rahul Bajaj and Adi Godrej have opposed the bandh and termed the protest as odd and absurd. The disrupted rail movement also contributed to the industry loss.
 

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Newly-married Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Tuesday met Congress leader Rahul Gandhi here.

Dhoni was accompanied by his wife Sakshi and cricketer friend RP Singh during the meeting at 10 Janpath, the official residence of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, a top BCCI source said. "The appointment was taken earlier and the meeting was just a courtesy call," the source said.

Asked whether Dhoni also met Sonia Gandhi, the source said, "The appointment was only for meeting Rahul Gandhi." Dhoni and Sakshi got married in a hush-hush ceremony on Sunday night at a farmhouse near Dehradun after getting engaged on Saturday. The ceremony was a private affair with only close family members and friends in attendance.

The media was kept at bay by tight security during the marriage.

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