Soros says it: US economy in 'lasting slowdown'

New York: The US economy is in for "a lasting slowdown" and won't recover this year, while "the banking system as a whole is basically insolvent," billionaire investor George Soros told Reuters Financial Television on Monday.
While nationalisation of banks is "out of the question," he said stress tests being conducted by the US Treasury could be a precursor to a more successful recapitalization. But he warned about the danger of watering down mark-to-market accounting rules, saying this creates conditions for prolonging the life of US 'zombie' banks.
Soros also said the US dollar is under pressure and may eventually be replaced as a world reserve currency, possibly by the IMF's Special Drawing Rights, a synthetic currency basket comprising dollars, euros, yen and sterling.
China recently proposed greater use of Special Drawing Rights, possibly as an eventual global reserve currency. "In the long run, having an international accounting unit other than the dollar may be to our advantage," Soros said. He added that the system that has allowed the United States to spend more than it earns has to be reformed.
"That is coming to an end and it will not be allowed to recur. There will have to be some change." While a global recovery is possible in 2010, Soros said the timing will ultimately depend on the depth of the recession. China, he said, will be the first country to emerge from recession, probably this year, and will spearhead global growth in 2010.
He said world policy-makers are "actually beginning to catch up" with the crisis and efforts to fix structural problems in the financial system. The system was "fundamentally flawed, and there is no returning to where we came from," he said.
In Europe, he said the crisis provides an incentive for countries that use the Euro to remain inside the monetary union, though countries on the periphery still face serious problems. Soros said the Euro has been "a tremendous advantage" to countries that use it, adding there's "no question of a weaker country dropping out."
While additional resources for the International Monetary Fund will help it stabilize struggling Eastern Europe, he said the Baltic states still face "serious problems" and Ukraine is not far from default. Widespread use of credit default swaps has worsened the risks for Europe, he said, though he added that Germany, the euro zone's biggest economy, is becoming more open to offering help.
"Germany, which has been the most reserved about being the deep pocket of the rest of Europe, has recognized that it too has a responsibility toward the new member states," he said.
Germany has been one of the most reluctant major economies to meet U.S. calls for more fiscal stimulus spending to boost the global economy and fight the financial crisis.

(SOURCES : cnn-ibn)

Death toll rises to 8 as 2 more blasts rock Assam

Guwahati: Four bomb blasts rocked Assam on Monday just a day ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to the state.
The four blasts took place in Guwahati, in Dhekiajuli near Tezpur, Mancachar in Dhubri and Udalguri district.
Seven people were killed and 32 others injured in the blast which took place at 1400 hours IST in Guwahati, police said. The bomb was planted in a motorcycle at a parking area near Maligaon Chariali in Guwahati.
Several vehicles and two-wheelers caught fire immediately after the explosion with fire-tenders arriving shortly afterwards.
One of the victims was a student of the Maligaon Primary School. The students were coming out of the school when the bomb exploded.

Two of the dead were identified as Mousum Khatun and Bhupen Kumar.
Complete chaos prevailed in the area with people protesting over repeated blasts in the city. Some protestors even attacked the police and their vehicles. Traffic was thrown out of gear with hundreds of vehicles stranded.
Nine of the injured were admitted to nearby Sanjivani Hospital, two in the adjacent North-East Frontier Railway Headquarters hospital and the rest were sent to Gauhati Medical College and Hospital.
In the second blast at Dhekiajuli, six people were injured when the blast ripped through a crowded marketplace.
One person died in the third blast at Mancachar in Dhubri on the India-Bangladesh border. As per initial reports the fourth blast in Udalguri was a grenade blast outside a police station.
Authorities suspect the hand of United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) rebels behind the blast. The banned outfit has had a history of setting off blasts on the eve of their founding day which is on April 7.
The blast site was cordoned off by the security forces suspecting that there could be more bombs.
Meanwhile, Home Secretary has spoken to Assam Chief Secretary following the blasts and has advised him to strengthen security arrangements in Guwahati and other areas.
Manmohan Singh is scheduled to visit Dibrugarh on Tuesday.

(sources CNN-ibn)

Prominence to Nano irks Gujarat diamond workers

While India Inc and Gujarati middle class celebrated the shifting of the Nano from West Bengal to Gujarat, unorganised labour in the state is upset with the Modi government for laying out the red carpet for the little car.
“The Nano project has come to Gujarat. The state government laid out the red carpet for it. If we were given even 50 per cent of that support the diamond industry would be back on its feet,” said a diamond worker.
The state's 10 lakh diamond workers come from Saurashtra, a region the BJP swept in the 2007 assembly elections after a booming economy had replaced hindutva as Modi's election trump card.
Then came the recession, diamond exports crashed and the highly skilled men were offered work by the government under the NREG. It hurt their asmita.
“The Nano was an external creation, brought in as if an organic growth. The diamond industry is a local creation. People in the diamond industry are saying how is the Nano car preferred to what has been organically created. Nano will be the first threat to Modi,” said Shiv Vishwanathan, social scientist, Ambani Institute, Ahmedabad,
So, will Nano envy become the rallying point for those feeling the heat of recession and for opposition parties looking to stop the seemingly unstoppable chief minister?

(NDTV Sources and Report)

Abhimaan Remake will be sooner

With every producer and director of fame running to remake old classics, it came as no surprise when director Rajeev Menon said that he intended to remake Abhimaan, the 1973, Amitabh Bachchan-Jaya Bhaduri starrer, which was directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee. The film's producer, Pawan Kumar, is however, not having any of this.He has claimed that he has the copyright of the film and is the owner of the film. Kumar himself has intentions of remaking the Seventies classic, with the Senior Bachchans playing the parents and the junior Bachchans, Abhishek and Aishwarya Rai playing the lead roles.But Kumar dismisses that as mere talk and says that nothing has been finalised yet. It is believed that that the Big B asked him to find a director who could do full justice to the Hrishikesh Mukherjee classic. But with nothing has yet been finalised.Kumar promises to make an announcement in a little while. He plans to retain some of the old songs to keep the flavour of the film alive.The original's music was composed by the late SD Burman. Its songs still have a lot of appeal.Apparently, besides Menon even Rakesh Mehra wanted to remake the film with AR Rahman composing the music.

Reese Witherspoon on her new 3-D adventure flick Monsters vs. Aliens, her kids and turning 33.

B-movie monsters must be in your debt, wouldn't ya say?

“I was really into the idea that 1950s B-movie monsters became heroes. I watched a lot of those movies as a kid with my dad. Every Saturday night, they would be on, so it was a really good modern concept and then to put a woman at the center of the film was pretty amazing.”

And your fave was ... ?

“Creature From the Black Lagoon. That was very scary.”

Your kids get that most moms don't get to play superheroes, right?

“I talked to my kids a lot about ‘Who’s your favorite superhero?’ While my son can name 27 different male superheroes, my daughter is like, ‘I don’t know. The girl with the … I can’t remember any of them.’”

And they're dealing with it how?

“My kids managed to maintain their coolness for awhile, but literally it has hit fever pitch at my house. They are rabid, and they wake up in the morning like, ‘When can we watch this movie?’ My daughter, who’s 9 and is trying to be cool, she’s like, ‘It’s OK, it's just ... how many people can I bring to the screening?’ I think she invited the entire third grade. I’m really enjoying this moment because usually my kids think I’m a gigantic dork, and they are so in love with me right now. It is great.”

We bet you have a lot in common with this 49-foot woman, doncha?

“Maybe at the end, [she has] a sort of tenacity, fierceness, taking care of the group. I'm kind of a mother hen that way even on movie sets.”

Give us the gossip on the Europe press tour!

“We got to see a lot of great stuff. In Madrid, we went to the Prada Museum, that was very cool; and in Paris, we got to go to the Musee D'Orse. Mr. Katzenberg is really nice because you can either have lunch and stay in the hotel or he'll say, 'Come on! Let's go see a museum!' and it motivates you to actually do things that are culturally interesting.”

Happy belated birthday! How's 33 treating ya?

“Older, yeah. I think I actually shrink. My mother is now four feet tall … It is a great thing to be able to be doing things with my kids and having them be proud of me. What’s better than feeling like you’ve accomplished things in life?”

Equalism Everywhere

Women are need to treat equal., because most of the countries they are threating like slaves.

Thus it should be prohibited, they are not like the drugs to use of it and get addict of it.

They are pride and human beings who makes a man to love of it.

Women are treating equal to god in some countries, but even in some countries they treating them as a slavery.

Thus they should take a good steps to prevent of it.

Fashion

Fashion designing becomes one of the important and essential to design our dresses.
Everyone in this field helps the people to design their own dresses and enables them to fit according to suit of it.

Fashion designing which also gives essential variety of dresses to choose of it. This helps the people overview the dress and if they like of it, they can contact the designers to design for them.

Thus technology develops according to designing field to developed more.