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I've picked my favorite mistakes from history, science, and folklore. Some are familiar. We already know, for instance, that Christopher Columbus meant to sail to Asia, not America.
We may never have pondered other mistakes, however. Where would Jack be if his mother hadn't tossed his magic beans out the window? Not up the beanstalk getting golden eggs from the giant's goose, that's for sure.
And where would Cinderella be had she not dropped her glass slipper? Cleaning the fireplace, that's where. (By the way, did you know that the original Cinderella story had her wearing a fur shoe? A French writer made a mistake when he wrote the story down in 1697, confusing two homonyms--vair, an Old French word for fur, and verre, which is French for glass. But it was a good mistake, making for much more romantic story, and much better fashion.)
And now for the rest...
Coca-Cola, chocolate chip cookies, and yellow sticky notes
Did you wonder why I invited you to have a snack at the beginning of this story? It was because both Coca-Cola and chocolate chip cookies were mistakes--or at least unexpected delights. And yellow sticky notes were the result of a failure. Here's what happened.
Innkeeper Ruth Wakefield was baking Butter Drop Do cookies one day in the 1930s using a recipe that dated back to colonial times. She cut up a Nestlé chocolate bar and put the chunks in the batter, expecting them to melt. Wakefield thought she'd be pulling chocolate-flavored cookies out of the oven. Instead, what she got were butter cookies studded with gooey chocolate chips. Her mistake became one of the most favorite cookies of all time.
Coca-Cola was the result of another delicious accident. In 1886 a pharmacist named John Pemberton cooked up a medicinal syrup in a large brass kettle slung over an open fire, stirring it with an oar. When he was done, he figured he had created a fine tonic for people who were tired, nervous, or plagued with sore teeth.
Coke didn't make it as medicine, and wasn't even an instant success as a beverage. In the first year, Pemberton spent $73.96 promoting his new product but managed to sell only $50 worth. Today people guzzle 1 billion drinks a day from the Coca-Cola company (they make more than Coke), which is quite encouraging for us everyday screw-ups.
Yellow sticky notes, officially known as Post-it Notes, got their start in 1968 when a 3M researcher tried to improve adhesive tape. What he got was a semisticky adhesive--not exactly what you want out of tape. Even so, he knew he had something cool--he just didn't know what to do with it.
Four years later, another 3M scientist was getting frustrated. This scientist was a member of his church choir, and he kept dropping the bookmarks stuck in his hymnal. What he needed was something that would stick without being too sticky--something just like that weak glue his colleague had accidentally created. In 1980 the Post-it Note became an official product and a huge hit.
(Another 3M scientist came up with a cool substance called Scotchgard, which helps prevent dirt from staining fabric. But that wasn't what she set out to create: Scotchgard grew out of an attempt to make a synthetic rubber to be used in airplane fuel lines. One day some of the new substance spilled on her assistant's canvas shoe, and they couldn't get it off. As the tennis shoe grew older, it got dingy--everywhere except where the substance had spilled. It took three more years of tinkering, but they had their Scotchgard.)
Tires and Silly Putty
Rubber got its name when English scientist Joseph Priestley discovered that a wad of it was good at "rubbing out" pencil mistakes on paper. But the rubber really hit the road--literally--when someone figured out how to stabilize it for use in boots, tires, and the like. The problem was that rubber melted if it got too hot and shattered if it got too cold.
A colorful character named Charles Goodyear tried to fix this problem in several ways, but it wasn't until (according to legend) he accidentally dropped a blob of rubber and sulfur on a hot stove that he found something that worked. Goodyear denied this was a mistake, but the point is that he had the savvy to know he was on to something good.
Rubber shortages during World War II prompted the U.S. government to look for a synthetic rubber. It seemed like a good idea to try to make this substitute for rubber out of something plentiful, and researchers eventually settled on silicone. An inventor at General Electric added a little boric acid to silicone oil and developed a gooey, bouncy substance.
This substance failed as a substitute for rubber, but after the war it became an extremely popular toy known as Silly Putty. Apollo 8 astronauts later used it to stabilize their tools in zero gravity. (The astronauts carried their Silly Putty in sterling silver eggs.) Today, Binney & Smith (the company that makes Silly Putty) produces 20,000 eggs' worth of Silly Putty a day.
The implantable cardiac pacemaker and penicillin
Some errors have saved lives. Before Wilson Greatbatch came along, people with irregular heartbeats had to control their pulse using a sometimes painful external device invented in 1952 by Paul Zoll. The external pacemaker was about the size of a small television, and administered life-saving jolts of electricity, which sometimes burned the skin.
Greatbatch, a medical researcher, was working on a device to record irregular heartbeats when he accidentally inserted a resistor of the wrong size. He noticed that the circuit pulsed, stopped, and pulsed again--just like a human heart.
After two years of tinkering, Greatbatch had made the first implantable pacemaker. He later invented a corrosion-free lithium battery to power it, and millions have benefited.
Penicillin is another famous example of a mistake turned good. In 1928 scientist Alexander Fleming noticed that mold spores had contaminated one of the bacteria samples he had left by an open window. Instead of discarding his ruined experiment, Fleming took a close look and noticed the mold was dissolving the harmful bacteria. And that's how we got penicillin, which helps people around the world recover from infections.
This brings to mind a powerful quote by scientist Louis Pasteur, "Where observation is concerned, chance favors only the prepared mind," and another, by writer James Joyce, "Mistakes are the portals for discovery."
What they mean is that you should look carefully--and study your errors. You may find things you were never looking for, things that could change the world, or at the very least, taste really good.

Being a sex goddess is hard work…and not only is it constant work, it takes time, it takes planning and determination. When’s the last time you took the time to unleash the sex goddess trapped in you. Took a sensuous shower, pampered yourself with barely there lingerie, and seduced a man with every trick in the book…so much so that you just about had him worshipping the very ground that you glided on!

Take charge...Show off your body

Show off how sexual you are! Unleash the sex goddess in you. Instead of him being the master player, take over the baton and show him how to orchestra every move…isn’t that what Kamasutra is all about?

You play games

Who says games are for children? Well, they aren’t. Sex is supposed to be a whole lot of fun. The more you are in a mood to play, the higher you’ll be rated. Role playing, fantasies, blindfolding, bondage…from drab to going kinky, then you can be assured, you are one girl that’s on your partner’s mind all the while.

You Make the first move as often as possible A guy’s constant woe…”She never takes the initiative! So give your partner a zing by taking the initiative. Get bold and naughty, sexy and subtle in the same breath and your partner will be begging for more! And the woman on top – the power position always does the trick. Ask a man on the power play and he gives his thumbs up to the woman on top!

Foreplay lasts twice as long as intercourse

It’s not only women who enjoy the foreplay, but men too get off on foreplay. The little feathery kisses and touches, a nail trailing down their wrist, a nibble on their pulse…is enough to drive him out of his sense. Play it cool and play it to the hilt. I say, hold the reins and play him till he worships you as his own goddess.
No hands massage Use your body…to drive him crazy. Work your magic on him without using your hands. For him to worship you, make the first move. Teach him what a true massage is – with the tip of your tongue to the gentle swell of your hip! It’s all about knowing your sexual appeal!

Read my lips

According to Oriental erotic texts, a woman's upper lip is directly connected to her clitoris. During self-pleasure, or while receiving oral from your lover, bite your upper lip (or run your fingernails over it) to increase sensation and make your orgasm more powerful. You’ll try everything once If you haven’t experimented with pervy or kinky stuff, yet are game for it, then you get our thumbs up on this one. You should try everything (within reason) once. He wants you to dress like Fearless Nadia and talk dirty, then go ahead. You just may enjoy the power play role. You own a vibrator Men actually feel threatened by women who use sex toys. but the truth is, women who own one have higher libidos and generally want more sex. As a saying goes, “A clever girl won't demote her toys to the back of a drawer when her lover is around, but rather she'll put on a performance for him -- and even use them on him.”

You’ve said No to your bed You’ve abandoned your bed and gone wild in the beach, in the car, on the balcony when the neighbors are out (or in)...We know for a fact that semipublic sex is up there in the top five fantasies for men, the top 10 for women.

Please yourself Just because your lover is around that does not mean that you let him do all the work. Pleasuring yourself in front of a lover makes you feel hot and leaves him in a state of near frenzy. And if you’re embarrassed, put on a blindfold. It's kinky and almost private and just up’s your sex goddess quotient. Ask a man and he would put that in his top 5 sexual fantasies.

Go wild and wanton with your clothes Slipping into a flannel nightgown does not really up the sex quotient. Of course, you could look sexy in a potato sack, but if you have the clothes to match your mood, you have hit on a jackpot. Fishnet stockings, corset in satin and peek a boo lingerie with a sexy spray on your pulse points would just about have your man on his feet begging for more.

Source: India Syndicate

Ever had a crush on a woman, and found out that she was already seeing someone? What did you do next, went home and cried, pussy boy? Losers aside, here are a few things that determined men do. They steal girlfriends. So if you think you’re ready to sweep the girl of your dreams from right under her guy’s nose, here’s Confetti, the Couples Lifestyle Magazine raising a toast to you, you… you little desperado.

So here we go again, on this exciting voyage of being the player and the best man to have existed on the face of this Earth. Casanova is history. So let’s hit first base here. You like a girl. And cupid’s struck the wrong butt… again. And you’re left in the dark. She’s with another guy. Alright, life can be a bit harsh at times. So will you stop with your whining and crying already?! For crying out loud, there’s a way to have her. Thankfully. And it’s all in my, as Chris Gardner says in ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’, “Ten Gallon Head”. Once you’re done blowing your nose and sticking the snot under the couch, let’s get to the deep, dark world of girlfriend stealing. Brr... I can feel the adrenalin already, that sick taste in the mouth and the annoying hair on the back of your neck that stands on end. Girlfriend stealing is an art, not some club swinging clumsy hit-and-miss techniques used by the lesser mortals. So sharpen your mind, and play it smooth, playboy.

Shut the doors, and keep everyone out. This lost art is the final nail on any boyfriend’s coffin. Have you ever come across any guy who could always get any girl he wanted, even if she’s been going out with her guy since the last millennium? It doesn’t matter if you’re a dodo who hasn’t noticed that yet, or if you’ve got so few friends that you don’t have one smooth talker around you, because in just a few minutes you’re going to be able to hold that coveted title in your very own hands. This is unlike me, helping a guy shatter another guy’s heart, but I’ve been hounded by guys who’ve wanted to know how to go out with a girl who’s already been taken, because they’re just so madly in love with them. It may have been the hardest thing on planet earth but with these little pointers, stealing girlfriends could just turn out to be as easy as stealing coins from a genuine blind beggar! So cheer up, lift your chin out of the dirt and keep your eyes peeled if you want that special girl. And if you’re a man who’s going out with a girl already, don’t hate the player, buddy, hate the game
1. Get to know everything she can tell

This is important. Once you’re pals, you need to become something more than that. So talk about her favourite dates, her kind of movies, the little annoying stuff she’s done, and everything else. Just to warm her up, you start off by narrating the time you ripped your pants off while trying to jump into a girl’s house. Just as long as you open up, she will too, and you know what, she’s going to love it!

2. Are you better than him?

The test of manliness. Talk about her guy. Pop the question. Ask her what kind of a guy he is. If you’re getting into her good books, she will keep it simple. Then ask her what she thinks of you. Compare both the scores out aloud. Laugh and talk about what you can do to tilt the balance to your side. And then get back to talking about how they met, and more blah, blah and blah about her guy.

3. Make her love you!

She’s in love with her man, but that could change. Impress her, be a man around her. Give her the space when she meets her pals or on phone when both of you are together, so she can be comfortable when you’re around. Remember her special days, her deadlines, and anything else, even if it is really trivial. Show her that even her little things are really important to you. And wait for the good times.

4. Be her other guy

Now get this straight, you be her other guy, not her back-up guy. If you find that she’s just using you as her Man Friday when he’s not around, walk out. She should respect you and want you. Don’t go trailing her at every opportunity you get. Keep it slow, and talk to her once in a while, at least once a day if you work at the same place, or alternate days or less if it’s on phone. Let her miss you when you aren’t around. Drive her to work if you can, give her the attention, and basically, treat her like a princess when you’re together.

5. Give her what her guy can’t give

Pamper her. You may not be around her all the time, and her guy may be. But that doesn’t matter. Because your one hour around her can do more damage to him than all day. Talk and be genuinely interested in her. If you get a call, see if you can cancel and call back, and let her see that. She should know how special the times both of you share is to you. And more than anything else, maintain intense eye contact with her when both of you talk. Make her feel like she’s the only thing in the world you care about when you’re with her.
Getting down and dirty

1. Dig all info

There may be a few things she knows but she won’t tell. And any info about her is good info. That’s where her pals come into the picture. If you know them in the first place, then go on and ask a few things about her. But very discreetly, of course. You don’t want them to know you’re hitting on her. And admit it, if you do like her, you’re definitely going to want to talk about her.

2. The annoying guy

Find out more about her guy from any source you can get. There may always be a few skeletons that could be dug out here. So he doesn’t believe in holding doors open for a woman? The next time you talk to her, tell her the story about a man who doesn’t open doors for women, and how annoying that is. See, that’s like letting her know her guy isn’t all that, without actually talking about him. On the other hand, talk about how much you live by the code of chivalry. Without coming across as pompous!

3. “Bump” into her

So you know things about her. Good. Does she hang out on weekends at a particular place? Did her friends tell you that? Excellent. As long as she hasn’t told you that, and you’ve figured it out yourself, go for the kill. Accidentally bump into her at the same place, and pretend like your “surprise” meeting is a damn sign from heaven that you guys have to be together. Ask her out to coffee or lunch. You know, these occasional bumping scenarios could actually take you somewhere.

4. Who’s that guy?

Remember, for you, her guy is of no value. So treat him like one. Unless you know him on first-name basis, refer to him as ‘your boyfriend’ when you talk to her. She may talk about how much she loves him, and blah, but it doesn’t matter. And at times, when she goes on and on about him, yawn pointedly and make sure she knows it’s a fake. But do make sure you laugh after you do that, you’d want to make it seem like a joke instead of a rude gesture.

5. Same workspace

Sometimes, we end up liking a girl in the same workspace. And to make things worse, her guy could work there too. So when you’re talking to her once in a while, there’s a fair chance that he’d end up joining the conversation too. Don’t lose your enthusiasm here, but stay away from flirty comments. But the second he walks away, thank your lucky starts loudly and get back to your flirty talk. A line that goes like, “Thank you God, at last, I can get a few minutes with this beautiful girl without her boyfriend around!” not only gets the point across, but also sounds humorous.

The complaint is as old as the politics of social justice: the hegemony of urban elite over the wretched and the dispossessed. Votaries of the so-called Other India the India beyond the sensations of the Sensex and the temptations of the marketplace never get tired of narrating the conspiracy of the privileged.
Twelve of our 14 prime ministers, they keep reminding us, have been from urban India. Only two, H.D. Deve Gowda and Charan Singh, came from the peasant class, and both were accidental. Now that the politics of cohabitation has made India one of the most crowded and politically promiscuous democracies in the world, the sociology of power has become starker.
The most obvious trend in the India Today Mood of the Nation poll on the eve of the General Elections is the shrinking bipolarity or the thriving multiplicity. There are no clear winners as the ruling UPA and the NDA are separated by only 19 votes. The middle is occupied by that amorphous group called Third Front, populated by provincial pachyderms who think their time has come to be the rulers of India. If they can't, they will decide who will. It may not be the revenge of the regions but it certainly brings out the less-than-national appeal of the national parties.
The only certainty in a fragmented polity is that we have an embarrassment of prime ministerial riches. In the beginning, there was only one, and BJP leader L.K. Advani has been campaigning in true presidential style, that too without an identifiable opponent.
Much belatedly, and less ceremoniously, Congress President Sonia Gandhi said Manmohan Singh would get another term as prime minister if the UPA won the elections. She can only name him, she just can't make him prime minister. Without the support of regional parties with more than 70 members, either Advani or Manmohan can't become prime minister. That support can no longer be taken for granted as kingmakers now aspire to be kings.
As Lalu Prasad Yadav, a Sonia worshipper-turned-heartbreaker, said in an interview with the television channel Aaj Tak, The UPA exists only in Delhi and why can't we consider Ram Vilas Paswan, a Dalit leader, for prime ministership after the elections? Then, why just Paswan? Why not Pawar? The NCP has been projecting its leader and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar as a future prime minister for a while.
He will share a platform with CPI(M) leader Prakash Karat and Orissa Chief Minister and BJD leader Naveen Patnaik at a rally in Bhubaneswar on April 13. That is the freedom of being Pawar. His party is fighting the Congress everywhere except his home state of Maharashtra and Goa. The strategy of each regional party is to contest maximum number of seats so that they can improve their tally of 2004. Obviously, both the Congress and BJP are anxious, and they may end up fielding more candidates than they did in 2004.
The poll provides little cheer to the Congress and BJP. Parties which belong to neither of the two alliances are likely to get almost the same number of seats as the others. Leaders like Lalu, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Paswan, Jayalalithaa, Mayawati and the communists are an independent lot.
Pawar's feet may be on the UPA ground but his heart is elsewhere. And each of these satraps is worth 25 to 30 seats, and their combined strength could go up to 180. Still, they are too volatile a group to remain intact. Will Maya and Mulayam ever be compatible? Unlikely. A candidate sponsored by the so-called Third Front led by the Left and others can't reach 7 Race Course Road without the support of either the Congress or the BJP. In the marketplace of prime ministers, choices are many and the art of bargain alone can ensure a politically profitable deal.
How come we have got so many choices or so many competing ideas of India in the fray? The UPA has been particularly fertile for prime ministers in waiting. Leaders like Lalu and Pawar have acquired a national profile as star Cabinet performers. They used their power at the Centre to expand their regional base. For the UPA, the vote of confidence was the moment when it realised the true worth of its allies. It survived the vote because partners like SP, RJD and DMK not only kept their flock together but broke the ranks of others.
It gave the allies a new confidence. As the poll illustrates, all those regional leaders seeking national glory enjoy more support in their states than the prime ministerial candidates of both the national parties. Mayawati with 24 per cent votes and Mulayam with 21 per cent are way ahead of both Advani (11) and Manmohan (7) in Uttar Pradesh. For the voters of Bihar, Lalu or Nitish Kumar would make a better prime minister than Advani or Manmohan.
With 120 seats, these two states will play the arbiters after the elections. In Gujarat, Modi is the choice of over 40 per cent of voters: Advani gets only 3 per cent. In Maharashtra, Pawar is the second most popular candidate for the top job. In the South though, Manmohan scores over the likes of Gowda, Jaya, Karunanidhi and Chandrababu Naidu. When Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Atal Bihari Vajpayee were in power, there were no regional leaders who could match or come anywhere near their popularity.
This regional eruption in leadership also means the rise of so many little Indias. Post-election, India is all set to stage a thriller of mathematics and megalomania, of oversized prime ministerial ambitions and total repudiation of political morality.

New Delhi, April 19 (IANS) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi has said Tamil Tiger chief Vellupillai Prabhakaran is his 'good friend' and he would have 'deep regrets' if the Sri Lankan rebel leader was killed during the military operations in the island nation.
'I will deeply regret it (if Prabhakaran is killed). I will regret it. I will say it happened because of a lack of unity among the Tamil groups in Sri Lanka,' Karunanidhi told NDTV.
Asked if he sees the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) chief as a terrorist, Karunanidhi said: 'No, I don't. Some people in Prabhakaran's group might be involved in terrorism. But that is not Prabhakaran's fault.'
'Prabhakaran is a good friend, and I am not a terrorist.'
He said the LTTE, which has been fighting a separatist war for an independent homeland for minority Tamils in Sri Lanka, has a 'legitimate objective'.
'But the manner in which they go about it is wrong,' the DMK leader said.
'Terrorism is different,' Karunanidhi said asked how was it possible not to recognise the LTTE as a terrorist organisation.
The LTTE is known to be one of the most dreaded terror groups in the world involved in many civilian killings, including the assassination of former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Lucknow, April 19 (IANS) A grand Ram temple in Ayodhya will become a reality if the Bharatiya Janata Party is voted to power, BJP prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani told an election rally here Sunday.
'It is a dream of crores of people across India and a magnificent temple will definitely come up in Ayodhya,' Advani told a gathering of over a thousand people.
Advani was in this Uttar Pradesh capital to campaign for party candidate Lalji Tandon, the sitting legislator.
He also repeated his pledge to bring back the Indian money deposited in tax havens abroad if voted to power.
'A party of south India has protested the demolition of the Rama Setu and has supported the cause of building the Ram mandir in Ayodhya. The party has mentioned this in its election manifesto too,' Advani said, hinting at J. Jayalalitha's AIADMK.
He also cautioned party workers against over-confidence and said that was what led to the BJP's defeat in the 2004 elections.
'I would like to request party workers not to rely on rallies and public meetings. We have 10 crore new voters this time and you should be conducting door-to-door contacts to convince them,' Advani said in his hour-long speech in Vikas Nagar locality

The stage is set, battle lines are drawn -- the countdown has begun for the IPL's second season. South Africa is all decked up to host modern day cricket's bigest success story. IPL Commissioner, Lalit Modi said, "South Africa was simply the best choice. I believed that then, I believed that over the last 22 days, and I believe it now, very much so." Cape Town has set the ball roling with its grand parade and with less than 24 hours to go for the gala opening, everyone is in high spirits

Union Ministers Lalu Prasad, Praful Patel, S Jaipal Reddy and Renuka Chowdhury are testing electoral waters in the first phase of general elections. Congress leader Renuka Chowdhury, who is contesting for a third consecutive term from Khammam, is pitted against N Nageswara Rao of the TDP.While RJD chief Lalu Prasad is pitted against BJP's Rajiv Pratap Rudy and BSP's Saleem Pervez in Bihar's Saran constituency, NCP's Patel is in the fray from Bhandara-Gondia against sitting BJP member Shishupal Patle.BJP stalwart Murli Manohar Joshi is contesting from Varanasi against murder-accused Mukhtar Ansari of the BSP.After a long innings as diplomat, former United Nations Undersecretary General Shashi Tharoor is contesting from Thiruvananthapuram on a Congress ticket. He is contesting against P Ramachandran Nair of CPI.

The first phase of the 2009 Lok Sabha elections recorded 58-62 percent voter turnout but was marred by large-scale Maoist violence that claimed the lives of 19 people, including 10 police personnel, the Election Commission said Thursday.
Giving preliminary statistics compiled from 15 states and two union territories where over 143 million people were eligible to vote in the first round, a poll panel official said that the voting percentage ranged from a low 46 percent in Bihar to a high 86 in Lakshadweep island. Nagaland also witnessed a high turnout of 84 percent.
"By and large the elections were peaceful. Overall poll percentage was between 58 to 62 percent. Considering the complexities and difficulties, the elections were largely peaceful," Deputy Election Commissioner R Balakrishnan said here after the day's balloting ended.
He said there were sporadic incidents of violence blamed on Maoists in some states - Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Jharkhand - that left 19 people dead, including nine civilians and 10 policemen, and many more injured.
"There were incidences of attacks on police personnel, poll personnel and polling stations. The central police forces and the state police force handled it very affectively," Balakrishnan said.
Images: India goes to pollsMaoists had called for poll boycott in some states and warned that they would chop off the hands of those who went to vote.
Balakrishnan praised the security personnel for their "commendable job" in tackling the Maoist violence.
He said the five-phase elections were designed keeping in mind the "problems and challenges".
He said the picture would be clear late Thursday night or Friday morning.
Among the states that witnessed high polling percent were Lakshadweep (86 percent), Nagaland (84 percent) Manipur (in the range of 66 to 68 percent), Andhra Pradesh (65 percent), Orissa (63 percent) Arunachal Pradesh (62 percent), Meghalaya (65 percent), Assam (62 percent), Andaman and Nicobar Islands (62 percent), Kerala (over 60 percent), Mizoram (52 percent).
Balakrishnan said there could be slight change in the figure in Uttar Pradesh, but the tentative figure was put out between 48 to 50 percent.
In Jammu and Kashmir, the turnout was 48 percent, while in Maharashtra it was 54 percent. "Jammu and Kashmir elections were peaceful and the voting percentage jumped from 44.9 percent in 2004 to 48 percent in 2009," he said.
Polling in violence-hit Chhattisgarh was 51 percent, in Jharkhand 50 percent and in Bihar 46 percent.
Kandhamal district in Orissa, which had witnessed large-scale violence against Christians last year, recorded a tentative percent of 65 percent, the poll panel said.
To minimise violence in Maoist affected areas, the Commission had made changes in the locations of polling booths, poll timing as well as deployment of security personnel, Balakrishnan said.
He said 71 polling stations witnessed Maoist violence, while 86 saw "various types of disturbances". The total number of polling stations was 185,552. Another 76,000 polling stations faced Maoist threat, he said.
Special: Lok Sabha Polls 2009
Violence was witnessed in Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar and Chhattisgarh. Seven states were free of incidents of violence - Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Kerala, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh, Balakrishnan added

MUZAFFARPUR (BIHAR): A criminal case was filed in a court
here on Thursday accusing Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and off-spinner
Harbhajan Singh with 'hurting' fans by staying away from the Padma awards function. Dhoni and Bhajji were to be honoured with the Padma Shree by President Pratibha Patil in New Delhi on Tuesday. Senior advocate Sudhir Kumar Ojha filed the case in the court of the CJM Ramdarash seeking to book the cricketers under sections 499 (defamation), 500 (punishment for defamation), 503 (criminal intimidation) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace). Ojha alleged that the two cricketers insulted fans and dishonoured the prestigious award by staying away from the function. The petition is likely to come up for hearing tomorrow, he said

NEW DELH: Deepak Bhardwaj of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on Thursday filed his nominations papers from the West Delhi constituency, declaring assets worth a whopping Rs 600 crore. Bhardwaj is the richest candidate, so far, for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections surpassing the previous richest candidate who had declared assets worth Rs 514 crore. Interestingly, the candidate who belongs to Mayawati's party came on a tractor that he uses on his farmland, to the Rampura election office in West Delhi to file his nomination. The 58-year-old tycoon owns businesses in real estate, hotels and education. He runs a school in Dwarka and plans to open two more schools- one in Dwarka and the other in Dhansa, both in West Delhi. A resident of Lajwanti Garden in West Delhi, Bhardwaj also owns a township project called Deepganga in Hardwar and a hotel called Niteshpunj Hotel Complex on the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway. Earlier this week, the previous richest LS candidate, a Mumbai-based businessman, filed his nomination as an Independent from Surendranagar. Khimji Patadia, 53, has declared assets worth Rs 514 crore, mainly in jewellery and real estate. Besides Patadia, Bhardwaj beats candidates like the Congress’s L Rajagopal from Vijaywada (Rs 299 crore), the BSP’s Karan Singh Tanwar from South Delhi (Rs 150 crore) and the SP’s Abu Azmi from Mumbai NW (Rs 122 crore).

Infosys Technologies has announced its fourth quarter numbers. Its Q4 FY09 net profit dipped 1.7% at Rs 1,613 crore as against Rs 1,641 crore on quarter-on-quarter basis.
It reported a decline of 2.61% in revenues at Rs 5,635 crore as against Rs 5,786 crore QoQ.
Also read: Infosys Q4 net profit down 1.7% at Rs 1,613cr
Guidance for Q1 and FY10
The company is likely to report Q1 FY10 revenues at Rs 5,379-5,480 crore, while EPS is seen at Rs 23.55/share. The company guided for 16% drop in Q1 EPS on QoQ basis.
The company is expecting FY10 revenues to decline by 3.1-6.7% in dollar terms while increase in revenues by 1.7-5.7% in rupee terms. It is seeing EPS for full year FY10 at Rs 96.65-101.18 a share versus Rs 104.43 in FY09. Its FY10 EPS for ADS is seen down by 11-15%.
Infosys disappoints
Rupee guidance: Below estimates
Dollar guidance: Below estimates
Rupee Q4: In line with estimates
Dollar Q4: Missed estimates
Revenues: Down against estimates
Margins: Under pressure
Offshore rates down 4.5%
Commenting on the outlook, Infosys COO said the pricing environment continues to be challenging. The company management added that the environment is challenging as clients are facing tough times. With nearly 70% of its clients cutting their IT budget by over 10%, the situation looks grim, the company added.
The management feels that the guidance will be flat to marginally negative in constant currency terms. The company sees its operating margins to fall by 300 bps while its net profit margins are likely to fall by 200 bps. It sees an average drop in prices to be around 6–6.5%. The reason for de-growth, the management said, was the delay in decision-making.
With regard to wages and hiring, the management made clear that there will neither be a hike nor a cut in wages, but job cuts are planned in FY10

Lucknow (IANS): Samajwadi Party (SP) general secretary and Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt has been booked for violating the model code of conduct by allegedly making an inflammatory speech in Uttar Pradesh's Mau district, an official said Wednesday.
"A case against Dutt was registered Tuesday night after he made communal remarks at a public meeting," district police chief Ram Bharose told IANS on phone.
The meeting to garner support for the Samajwadi Party's Ghosi parliamentary seat candidate Arshad Jamal Ansari was held in the Dakshintola locality of Mau, about 300 km from here.
According to the police, Dutt claimed that police harrassed him in jail because his mother was a Muslim. Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh and MP Jaya Bachchan were also present at the meeting.
"After seeing the video footage of the public meeting, the district authorities directed us to register the case against Dutt," said Bharose.
The CD of the public meeting where Dutt made the offensive remarks has been forwarded to the State Election Commission (SEC) for further action.

Failure to control type 2 diabetes may lead to poorer memory and diminished brain power, a new study has found.
Diabetes could lead to diminished brain power (Getty Images)According to University of Edinburgh team, severe hypoglycaemic episodes - hypos - occur when blood sugar levels drop dangerously low. Hypoglycaemia is caused by a lack of sugar (glucose) reaching the brain, which uses it as fuel. Its symptoms include sweating, fatigue, hunger, feeling dizzy, feeling weak, a higher heart rate than usual and blurred vision More severe episodes can led to temporary loss of consciousness, convulsions and coma. Now, in the latest study, researchers recruited 1,066 people with type 2 diabetes aged between 60 and 75. The study was presented at a conference of the charity Diabetes UK. To reach the conclusion, volunteers were given seven tests assessing mental abilities such as memory, logic and concentration. The 113 people who had previously experienced severe hypos scored lower than the rest of the group. They performed poorly in tests of their general mental ability, and vocabulary. "Either hypos lead to cognitive decline, or cognitive decline makes it more difficult for people to manage their diabetes, which in turn causes more hypos,” The BBC quoted lead researcher Dr Jackie Price, as saying. "A third explanation could be that a third unidentified factor is causing both the hypos and the cognitive decline. We are carrying out more research to establish which explanation is the most likely,” the expert added

Pays Rs 31 Cr As Income-Tax, Supercedes Shah Rukh By 0.01 Cr
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New Delhi: Top Bollywood stars seem to have beaten the economic slowdown to post handsome growth in their advance tax payments. Not only did the top 10 earners pay 17.7% more in taxes than the previous year, the industry also threw up a new ‘Hero No.1’. Akshay Kumar, who paid a whopping Rs 31 crore to the I-T department, narrowly pipped Shah Rukh Khan (Rs 30.99 crore) to the title of Bollywood’s highest tax payer of the year 2008-09. The Top 10 Bollywood stars together paid Rs 107 crore as taxes while the same set had paid Rs 90.90 crore in 2007-08, when the economic boom was at its peak. The other two Khans — Salman and Saif Ali — were at number three and four having paid Rs 14 crore and Rs 8.6 crore, respectively. As far as taxes go, Bollywood industry’s Jodi No.1 was Saif Ali and his girlfriend Kareena Kapoor, who herself was placed at No.7 with a deposit of Rs 3.7 crore into the tax kitty. The duo clearly beat theBachchans, Abhishek and Aishwarya, who stood at No.8 and No.6, respectively. Surprisingly, yesteryear superstar Rajesh Khanna continues to be among Bollywood’s big tax payers, coming in at No.5 after paying Rs 6.87 cr, ahead of Big B (Rs 1.25 cr) who slipped to the 10th rank from No.7 last year. Khanna had paid Rs 11.90 crore last year, the thirdhighest sum after after SRK and Akshay Kumar

Hyderabad: Banjara Hills police on Tuesday seized Rs 5 lakh in cash from an election campaigning vehicle of TRS’ Medak Lok Sabha candidate Vijayashanti at Kamalapuri Colony. At about 7 pm, police intercepted a Tata Safari (AP9 EX T/R 5299) as part of the vehicle-checking exercise at Kamalapuri Colony. During the inspection, police found bundles of currency amounting to Rs five lakh in the handbag of one K Srinivasa Rao, 39, who was sitting in the rear seat of the vehicle, B a n j a r a Hills inspector of police Iqbal Siddiqi said. Srinivasa Rao is a m a ke - u p artiste from Avanti Nagar in Erragadda. As he could not give proper explanation for the source of the money, police seized the cash and the vehicle under section 102 (power of police to seize certain property) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). During investigation, police found that the vehicle belonged to one Jayanthi Rao of Goshamahal and the returning officer of the Medak parliamentary constituency had issued permission to use the vehicle for campaigning purposes of Vijayashanti or her agent. In a related development, the enforcement wing of the Dhoolpet excise police station, raided a house in Upper Dhoolpet and seized 148 beer bottles and 40 Bagpiper whisky bottles worth Rs 20,000. The officials arrested one Ashok and booked cases against him, said excise superintendent K Satyanarayan

Campaign For 22 LS, 154 Assembly Seats Ends Hyderabad: Candidates literally rolled through the constituencies in their vehicles as campaigning ended at 4 pm on Tuesday for the first phase of elections in Andhra Pradesh scheduled for Thursday, April 16. Polling will take place for 22 Lok Sabha and 154 assembly seats in the first phase. Strangely, neither national nor regional issues figured in the campaigning by the major parties unlike in the 2004 elections when Telangana was projected as a major issue. This time around, all the major players mentioned free power in the early part of the campaigning, but as polling nears, have limited themselves to shouting from rooftops about the sops they are offering. If it were the development schemes on the Congress side, the grand alliance trumpeted the cash transfer scheme and free colour TV offer. Of the four main leaders, the fate of only one of them, TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao contesting for the Mahabubnagar Lok Sabha seat, will be sealed in the first phase. Chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu and PRP chief Chiranjeevi will take on their assembly opponents in the second phase to be held on April 23. While KCR ended the campaign by touring the city on Tuesday, the other three leaders preferred to concentrate on campaigning in those constituencies going to polls in the second phase. Campaigning in the coastal region, the chief minister, Naidu and Chiranjeevi landed in Visakhapatnam by the evening and were closeted with their party leaders devising strategies to win the Vizag Lok Sabha seat. Union minister and Congress candidate D Purandeshwari, TDP’s M V V S Murthy, PRP’s P Srinivas Yadav and BJP’s D V Subba Rao are locked in a fourcornered contest in Vizag LS seat. In fact, the three leaders stayed in the same hotel in the port city while chalking out the strategy for the second phase of elections. The mood was upbeat in both the Congress and the grand alliance camps. Congress sources said the development schemes initiated by the chief minister, including the housing, health and pension schemes should easily carry through the Congress. In the Telugu Desam Party camp, the leaders were confident that the cash transfer and free colour TV offer should swing the electorate in favour of the grand alliance. The PRP too, which has been plagued by desertions and allegations of selling tickets for money, too remained optimistic about its chances with their leaders claiming that Chiru would get simple majority. But what none of the political parties were admitting was the role that money and liquor would play from Tuesday till the morning of polling. “Over the next two nights, our job is to distribute money and liquor and ensure that the voters are brought to the polling booths on Thursday. The real clandestine war between the parties to woo the voters will become full-scale tonight,” said the poll manager of a political party. Last-Minute Efforts Cut No Ice With Voters Hyderabad: On Tuesday, the last day of the campaign, candidates belonging to different political parties were seen making lastminute efforts to reach out to as many voters as possible just before the EC deadline of 4 pm. But Telugu Desam Party TDP didate from Khairatabad K Vijayarama Rao got a hot dressing down from a voter. Talking on his mobile, he entered Bandlines along with his followers. Seeing a 70-year-old woman, he stopped and ended his phone call. Once his gaze fell on the name-plate identifying the householder as F Anthony, Vijayarama Rao picked up conversation with her in English and said: “I am Vijayarama Rao, TDP candidate from this constituency. I request you to vote for our party.” He even stepped into the woman’s house after being egged on by his followers and started explaining to the Anthony family how the Congress, after promising that all the houses in the basti would be regularised, had backtracked. But to Vijayarama Rao’s discomfiture, Kalara Anthony shouted: “It was TDP that traumatised us. Why did you come here only two days before the election? What is your motto? Five years ago, it was the TDP government that had sent truck loads of police to evict us. It was I who fought with the officials to give up the idea of evicting us from here. At least the present government made efforts to regularise our houses and we are told that the work is almost over. There is no way we will vote for you.” An embarrassed Rao tried to explain to her that the Himayatnagar division was earlier not part of the Khairatabad constituency. Seeing an unconvinced Anthony, he had to make a hasty retreat. In other areas the oncebitten-twice-shy Rao just breezed past declining invitations from families to come inside. In another instance, Congress candidate from Jubilee Hills P Vishnuvardhan Reddy was seen waving his hand at all households though no one came out at police quarters in Yousufguda. At Motinagar crossroads under the Kukatpally constituency, TRS candidate M Sudarshan Rao perhaps had doubts about party supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao’s crowd-pulling ability at the scheduled public meeting in the area. So, to catch attention of voters, he roped in drama artistes dressed in mythological characters like Krishna, Rama, Hanuman, etc. armed with bows and arrows. After concluding his campaign at Ramnagar in Musheerabad, KCR took part in road shows in Kukatpally, Qutbullapur and Musheerabad constituencies. During his whirlwind campaign, K Chandrasekhar Rao was seen waving to people from inside his campaign vehicle. He addressed meetings at Motinagar and Musheerabad. “There is very little time left for me to go to other constituencies as it is already 3.15 pm. Partymen will be disappointed if I do not visit their constituencies,” said KCR during his speech at Ramnagar. Though he tried to race against time he could not cover Sanathnagar, Nampally from where TRS candidates are contesting.