With Two Tweets Carl Icahn Added About $17 Billion To Apple’s Value

Put another way, Icahn’s tweets were worth more to Apple than the entire value of the companies below.

Billionaire hedge funder Carl Icahn disclosed a large stake in Apple today and said he was encouraging the company to increase the buyback program — on Twitter, of all places.

Those two tweets alone, however, sent Apple shares up about 5% and added about $17 billion to Apple’s market cap. The jump in price comes at a time when Apple is facing an issue with its public image — and whether the creator of the iPhone can still innovate.

Now, how much is your tweet worth?

Mizoram Wokers Union Sams Mizoram Foresters

By Linda Chhakchhuak

Aizawl, Aug 13 : The Mizoram Hnathawktu Pawl (workers’ union) has demanded compensation from the state forest department for the tribals whose bamboo shoots had been destroyed in a market in Serchhip district recently.

The union said this utter disregard for the law by the so-called law-keepers is an affront to the peaceful people going about their normal lives.

“The Forest Rights Act is something the forest department should know about and also make the people about. Instead, these officials are acting as if they know nothing about it (the act). Action should be taken against them,” Raphael Lalrinmawia, the president of the union, said during a news conference here today.

He demanded translation of the act into local languages and its distribution among people in the state so that they could learn about the rights they enjoyed with regard to the forest produce in their state.

Lalrinmawia also lambasted the various construction companies working in the state for failing to adhere to labour rights and mistreating their workers, who mostly happen to be migrants.

He said these companies, especially two firms engaging in construction of the Mizoram University complex and the Assam Rifles complex at Zokhawsang, had failed to make payments to their workers despite getting regular payments against bills.

Many workers from these companies had complained about this to the union, he said.

He warned the companies to respect the construction workers’ rights in future and pay them regularly.

At the same time, the union urged the state government to settle the Chiahpuam (fake deposit scam) case, as more than a thousand families had been impoverished by depositing their lifesavings in the firm operated by some fraudsters.
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India's First Cyber Forensic Lab set up in Tripura

Agartala, Aug 13 : India's first Cyber Forensic Laboratory (CFL) has been set up in Tripura, an official said Monday.

The lab, established at the Tripura High Court will provide court case related information.

"From the CFL, automatic SMS alert would go to both lawyers and the litigant about the fate of the court case. If any lawyer or the petitioner remains absent on the day of trial, the SMS alert would go to all concerned," a law department official told IANS.

Supreme Court judge Justice Madan B. Lokur, who was earlier the chief justice of the Gauhati High Court, inaugurated the CFL on Sunday.

"We want decentralisation of legal services across the country. It is difficult to control everything from Delhi. High courts in the states would look after the lower courts to dispose the pending cases in the quickest possible time," Lokur said.

"A National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) is being developed under the Supreme Court's supervision. All information about legal services, court cases and judicial actions would be available from the NJDG," Lokur said.

The NJDG would be fully operational by January 2014.

"So far, 13,000 judicial officers, including judges, have been trained about the e-court system and to equip them with the ongoing modernisation of legal services. Several thousand judicial officers would be given training about this new system," Lokur said.

To conduct an online trial, video conferencing systems are being expanded across the country, he said.

"Under this system, any judge or lawyer sitting in the court can talk to the accused lodged in jails".

Lokur first introduced the e-court programme in India when he was a judge in the Delhi High Court. He was a pioneer in introducing video conferencing systems between the Delhi High Court and Tihar jail in 2007.

Of the 620 district courts in India, 140 have created their own websites to provide case related information, he said.

"All e-court schemes would help judges take appropriate action for quick disposal of pending cases in various courts," he said.

"With this new system of trial and administrative works, the litigants will be immensely benefited. It will save both time and money to get quick justice and prompt disposal of cases," Lokur added.

Tripura High Court Chief Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Subhashish Talapatra also spoke about the lab.

Separate high courts were set up in Tripura, Meghalaya and Manipur in March.

The seven northeastern states - Assam, Tripura, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh - were earlier under the Gauhati High Court with benches in the state capitals. Sikkim had a separate high court.

Bandh Cripples Normal life in Manipur

Imphal, Aug 13 : The 48-hour bandh called by the hill-based United Naga Council in the Naga dominated areas of Manipur has badly affected the normal life in the state. Due to bandh, vehicles have also stopped playing on the National Highway, thus doubling the problem.

The bandh, which began from midnight on Sunday to press for a ‘separate administrative set up’ for the Nagas, hit normal life as all passenger buses and trucks, carrying essential commodities remained stranded on National Highway 39 and Imphal-Jiribam-Silchar National Highway 53.
   
Markets, shops and business establishments in Senapati, Ukhrul, Chandel and Tamenglong district areas remained closed, while transport services between the state capital and headquarters of hill districts Churachandpur were cancelled, official sources said.
   
UNC sources said that the decision to call bandh was taken on August 5 during a meeting of their leaders and added that the council was also likely to boycott Independence Day celebrations if a meeting was not called by the authorities to discuss their demands.
   
It also added that the council would also prevent implementation of national projects, which are being taken up in Naga areas if their demands are not considered.
   
In another development, the Kuki State Demand Committee (KSDC) announced a separate 48-hour bandh at Kuki settled areas of Manipur hills to press its demand for creation of a 'Kukiland' to be carved out of Manipur.
   
The bandh would begin from midnight of August 13 - when UNC-sponsored bandh will end. Sources said, efforts would be made to provide security to vehicles moving along the highways but it would depend on the availability of forces.

Guy Does To Bank What Banks Usually Do To Other People

Unhappy with the terms of an unsolicited credit card offer he received from online bank Tinkoff Credit Systems, Dmitry Agarkov scanned the document, wrote in his own terms and sent it through.

The bank approved the contract without reading the amended fine print, unwittingly agreeing to a 0 percent interest rate, unlimited credit and no fees, as well as a stipulation that the bank pay steep fines for changing or canceling the contract.

Agarkov used the card for two years, but the bank ultimately canceled it and sued Agarkov for $1,363 in charges, interest and late-payment fees.

A court ruled that, because of Agarkov’s no-fee, no-interest stipulation, he owed only his unpaid $575 balance. Now Agarkov is suing the bank for $727,000 for not honoring the contract’s terms, and the bank is hollering fraud.

“They signed the documents without looking. They said what usually their borrowers say in court: ‘We have not read it,’” Agarkov’s lawyer said.

via MSN

Mizoram Starts To Implement Food Scheme

Aizawl, Aug 12 : The Mizoram government has started the process of implementing the Food Security Scheme ahead of the assembly polls in December.

State food, civil supplies and consumer affairs department officials said the Centre has been apprised of the possible problems to be faced by Mizoram if the scheme is implemented.

Secretary for food, civil supplies and consumer affairs R Lalvena said the department was making all out efforts to implement the scheme even when the Centre’s response to their intimations on the problems is yet to be received.

Earlier, the target population of beneficiaries under the scheme was 6,33,000. But the Centre increased the number to 7,06,000 recently, an official said.

According to the latest instruction, about 70 per cent of the population of the state would receive 5 kg of rice at the rate of Rs 3 a kg every month under the scheme.

Under the present public distribution system (PDS), all people in the state received 8 kg of rice a month and the state required 1,33,000 quintals of rice a month purchased at the cost of Rs 18.19 crore, the official added.

“If the Centre discontinues the current public distribution system, the Mizoram government, in order to cover all the people, would have to pay an additional Rs 7.82 crore a month and if the PDS is continued, the additional expenses would be Rs 2 crore,” he said.

Chief minister Lal Thanhawla, after attending the meeting of Congress chief ministers on Food Security Scheme at the residence of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi in Delhi, told newsmen in Aizawl that the state would not implement the scheme due to fiscal crunch.

Lal Thanhawla and food, civil supplies and consumer affairs minister H Rohluna on July 24 informed the assembly that the state government was making efforts to implement the scheme before the expiry of the deadline.

However, while addressing an official function later, the chief minister had said the implementation of the scheme would bring more miseries to the poor people.

CCTV Surveillance for Guwahati

Guwahati, Aug 12 : More than 90 sensitive locations here in Assam's main city will be put under CCTV surveillance soon, police said Sunday.

L.R. Bishnoi, inspector general (Central Western Range) of Assam Police, said these locations will be monitored round-the-clock.

"While close to 200 cameras have already been installed in 90 locations, the remaining one location will be have CCTV cameras soon. We are now waiting for the server to come so that electronic surveillance becomes operational," he said.

A total of 36 officials in three shifts -- 12 personnel in each shift -- will monitor the live CCTV footage in 27 monitors in the control room. This will be a permanent arrangement to secure the city from militant attacks, the police official said.

The project to cover the city under CCTV surveillance was initiated in 2009. However, the project got delayed for many years.

Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, while reviewing the security of Guwahati with top police officials after the recent blast in Paltan Bazar July 28, had asked the force to speed up the process of installation of CCTVs.

Meanwhile, Senior Superintendent of Police (City) A.P. Tiwari said security in and around the city has been intensified, particularly after a boycott call given by militant outfits.

"It's a regular boycott call given by militants every year. However, we cannot take risks as they triggered three blasts last month across the state including one in Paltan Bazar," said Tiwari.

The ground where the Independence Day function will take place has already been secured, and entry and exit routes in the city have also been put under surveillance.

Internet Access in Northeast To Gather Speed

Tripura will soon be connected to global Internet gateway in Bangladesh
Kolkata, Aug 12 :  Internet connectivity in the North-East is set to get the much-needed fillip.

In a boost to bilateral cooperation, the Bangladesh Government has granted in-principle approval to India’s proposal to connect Tripura with the international Internet gateway (South-East Asia – Middle East – Western Europe 4 cable system) passing through Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh. Cox’s Bazar is 200-250 km from Tripura.

If implemented, this will help improve Internet services in Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura. The region suffers from highly unstable tele-connectivity offered by the only optical fibre link, passing through Chicken’s Neck, to Kolkata.
Proposed route

According to the minutes of a bilateral meeting on telecom connectivity held on July 30, Bangladesh has expressed its “willingness to establish telecom connectivity not only with the north-eastern States of India but also with other land-locked countries such as Nepal and Bhutan.” The proposed connectivity would be through Chennai to the North-Eastern States (excluding Assam) via Cox’s Bazar, on submarine (deep sea) cable. Assam, which is catered through a dedicated line, is excluded from the route.

Geographical proximity of Cox’s Bazar to the north-eastern States and the location of Bangladesh’s only submarine cable landing station there (required for laying an optical fibre) were the two factors that were considered at the time of proposing the route connectivity plan.

It was also decided in the bilateral meeting that detailed technical and commercial aspects (of the route, cable requirements and so on) would be worked out jointly by state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and two Bangladesh government-owned companies: Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Ltd (BTCL) and Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Ltd (BSCCL).

BTCL and BSCCL are controlled by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications.

BSNL, on its part, has proposed the provisioning of optical cables to “zero point” at the India-Bangladesh border near Agartala (Tripura) and Akhaura (Bangladesh). The provisioning is expected to help establish better connectivity in two routes — one between Agartala and the submarine cable landing station at Cox’s Bazar and the second between Agartala and Dhaka.

BSNL will be leasing Internet bandwidth (in multiples of 10G) each from Bangladesh Submarine Cable Co and Bangladesh Telecommunications for the routes.