Fashion TV gets nine-day ban in India

Racy Alexander McQueen program thought responsible

NEW DELHI -- India's Ministry of Information & Broadcasting issued a notice Thursday prohibiting Fashion TV (FTV) from telecasting its channel here from 12 March till 21 March for "showing women with nude upper body which was (sic) offending against good taste and decency."

The nine-day ban was imposed under the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995.

The offensive material pertains to the telecast of a show aired last September, the visuals of which the MIB "found to be obscene, denigrating women and were not suitable for children and unrestricted public exhibition."

While the MIB did not give more details of the show aired by FTV on Sept. 4 2009, media reports speculated Friday that the visuals in question were from a retrospective of late British fashion designer Alexander McQueen's show in Barcelona held in 2001.

This is the second time that Paris-based FTV has been banned here after the MIB imposed a one-month prohibition on the channel in 2007 for telecasting programmes such as "Midnight Hot" "wherein skimpily dressed and semi-naked models were shown." But that ban was revoked after FTV "regretted their error and assured that such an error will not be repeated in future", MIB said in its notice.

India suspends 'obscene' Fashion TV channel

Indian authorities frown at nudity on the ramp

India suspends Fashion TV (FTV) for 10 days for showing topless models during a show last year.

Officials said that FTV had violated several provisions of the Cable Television Networks rules by showing women in an "obscene" manner.

The ban comes into effect at 1900 local time (1330GMT), the information and broadcasting ministry said.

In 2007, FTV was suspended for two months for showing skimpily-clad models in the "Midnight Hot" show.

The prohibition was revoked less than a month later after the channel offered an apology and promised not to broadcast such material again.

The latest ban is for a programme aired in September 2009 when the channel showed "women with nude upper body which was offending against good taste and decency", the ministry said in a statement.

"The visuals were found to be obscene, denigrating women and were not suitable for children and unrestricted public exhibition," the statement added.

Windows Phone 7 Series: no realtime multiplayer gaming

Windows Phone 7 Series is Microsoft’s attempt at a big come back and reinvention in the smartphone space, but if you were holding out for a true gaming alternative to the iPhone, you might not want to get your hopes up. Microsoft has revealed that multiplayer games on the platform will be turn based only. Um, anyone for a game of touchscreen Connect 4?

One of the features in Windows Phone 7 Series highlighted at launch last month was Xbox Live integration. But the screenshots we’ve seen so far haven’t got our hopes up for Halo deathmatches on your mobile, and now Microsoft has all but killed off hopes of realtime multiplayer gaming.
In an interview with Joystiq, Xbox Live manager Ron Pessner and XNA Game Studio manager Michael Klucher confirmed that multiplayer Windows Phone 7 Series games will be “turn by turn” only, and while other “scenarios” might be on the roadmap, that’s all we’re getting for launch. In other words, Redmond only wants you and your mates to play games you can leave and come back to now and again. Battleships? Boo.
That’s a real shame, as Windows Phone 7 Series had been shaping up quite nicely as a gaming platform from what we’d seen this week at the Game Developers COnferencer, with Microsoft demoing a game running on an Xbox and Windows Phone 7 Series, and synching between the two. Expect to hear more about gaming on Windows Phone 7 Series at Microsoft’s MIX conference next week.

World's Rich List Reflects Shifting Global Wealth

The richest man in the world is no longer American. Forbes magazine's world's richest list has Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim on top. Microsoft founder Bill Gates and investor Warren Buffet occupy the second and third spots, respectively. Indian billionaires round off the top 5. Luisa Kroll, co-editor of the list, discusses the changing face of the world's richest people.

The World's Billionaires
For the third time in three years, the world has a new richest man.
Riding surging prices of his various telecom holdings, including giant mobile outfit America Movil, Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim Helu has beaten out Americans Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to become the wealthiest person on earth and nab the top spot on the 2010 Forbes list of the World's Billionaires.

Bill Gates No Longer World's Richest Man
Carlos Slim Helu takes No. 1 spot on Forbes World's Billionaires list as a record 164 10-figure
titans return to the ranking amid the global economic recovery.
For the third time in three years, the world has a new richest man.
Riding surging prices of his various telecom holdings, including giant mobile outfit America Movil ( AMX - news - people ), Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim Helu has beaten out Americans Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to become the wealthiest person on earth and nab the top spot on the 2010 Forbes list of the World's Billionaires.
Slim's fortune has swelled to an estimated $53.5 billion, up $18.5 billion in 12 months. Shares of America Movil, of which Slim owns a $23 billion stake, were up 35% in a year.
In Pictures: The 20 Richest People In The World
That massive hoard of scratch puts him ahead of Microsoft ( MSFT - news - people ) cofounder Bill Gates, who had held the title of world's richest 14 of the past 15 years.
Gates, now worth $53 billion, is ranked second in the world. He is up $13 billion from a year ago as shares of Microsoft rose 50% in 12 months. Gates' holdings in his personal investment vehicle Cascade ( CAE - news - people ) also soared with the rest of the markets.
Buffett's fortune jumped $10 billion to $47 billion on rising shares of Berkshire Hathaway ( BRK - news - people ). He ranks third.
The Oracle of Omaha shrewdly invested $5 billion in Goldman Sachs ( GS - news - people ) and $3 billion in General Electric ( GE - news - people ) amid the 2008 market collapse. He also recently acquired railroad giant Burlington Northern Santa Fe ( BNI - news - people ) for $26 billion.
In his annual shareholder letter Buffett wrote, "We've put a lot of money to work during the chaos of the last two years. When it's raining gold, reach for a bucket, not a thimble."
Many plutocrats did just that. Indeed, last year's wealth wasteland has become a billionaire bonanza. Most of the richest people on the planet have seen their fortunes soar in the past year.
This year the World's Billionaires have an average net worth of $3.5 billion, up $500 million in 12 months. The world has 1,011 10-figure titans, up from 793 a year ago but still shy of the record 1,125 in 2008. Of those billionaires on last year's list, only 12% saw their fortunes decline.
U.S. billionaires still dominate the ranks--but their grip is slipping. Americans account for 40% of the world's billionaires, down from 45% a year ago.
The U.S. commands 38% of the collective $3.6 trillion net worth of the world's richest, down from 44% a year ago.
Of the 97 new members of the list, only 16% are from the U.S. By contrast, Asia made big gains. The region added 104 moguls and now has just 14 fewer than Europe, thanks to several large public offerings and swelling stock markets.
The new billionaires include American Isaac Perlmutter, who flipped Marvel Entertainment ( MVL - news - people ) to Disney ( DIS - news - people ) for $4 billion last December. The Spider-Man mogul netted nearly $900 million in cash and 20 million shares of Disney in the transaction.
Also new to the ranking: 27 billionaires from China, including Li Shufu, whose automaker, Geely, announced plans to buy Swedish brand Volvo from Ford in December. The deal is expected to close in March 2010.
Finland and Pakistan both welcomed their first billionaires.
For the first time China (including Hong Kong) has the most billionaires outside the U.S. with 89.
Russia has 62 billionaires, 28 of them returnees who had fallen off last year's list amid a meltdown in commodities. Total returnees to the list this year: 164.
Eleven countries have at least double the number of billionaires they had a year ago, including China, India, Turkey and South Korea.
Thirty members of last year's list fell out of the billionaire's club. Moguls who couldn't make the cut: Iceland's Thor Bjorgolfsson, Russia's Boris Berezovsky and Saudi Arabia's Maan Al-Sanea.
Another 13 members of last year's list died. Among the deceased: real estate developer Melvin Simon and glass tycoon William Davidson.

Twin Bombing in Army Area of Pakistan’s Lahore Kills 20 People

Two suicide bombings in Pakistan’s Lahore killed at least 20 people and wounded 45 others, the second attack in the city this week, police and rescue services said.

Bombers targeted two cars in a convoy of army vehicles as they drove through an area where military officers are based, Chaudhry Shafeeq, a police spokesman, told reporters in Lahore. Most of those killed and injured are army members, he said.

A suicide car bombing outside a Pakistan police building in the same city, Pakistan’s second largest, killed 12 people on March 8, the first attack this year on major northern cities struck repeatedly by Taliban militants in late 2009.

Pakistan’s government blames the Tehrik-e-Taliban militant network based in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan for the terrorist attacks. The militants have increased bombings and gun attacks after the army launched its biggest offensive against Taliban guerrillas in October.

The first explosion today occurred at 12:48 p.m. local time on a road near Lahore’s RA Bazar, according to Rescue 1122. The second blast followed seconds later, it said. Lahore is Pakistan’s cultural center and is located to the southeast of the capital, Islamabad.

Since the army operation began last year, terrorists have hit major cities and towns killing at least 800 people. In a major setback for the Taliban, Pakistan says their leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, was killed by a missile fired from a U.S. drone aircraft in January. The Taliban deny Mehsud is dead.

Pakistan navy tests missiles in Arabian Sea

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan's navy successfully test-fired a series of missiles and torpedoes Friday in what it called a message to "nefarious" forces - an apparent reference to longtime rival India.
While the two nuclear-armed neighbors have taken slow steps toward restarting peace talks, they also have a history of using weapons tests as a form of diplomatic saber-rattling

The missiles were launched from aircraft, submarines and ships in the Arabian Sea. It was not immediately clear if the weapons were capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
Both countries regularly test their missile systems, and usually notify each other ahead of such launches in keeping with a diplomatic agreement.
But Friday's launches were followed by a navy statement saying the tests showed the navy's commitment to "defending the motherland." It added: "This strike capability would also send a message of deterrence to anyone harboring nefarious designs against Pakistan."
Such statements have been rare in recent years, as the two nations have struggled to keep their peace process limping along. Late last month, India and Pakistan held their first official talks since the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, which India blamed on the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
It was not clear whether the statement was an intentional attempt to stir the diplomatic waters, but similar wording has been used in the past to send warnings to New Delhi.
Other Pakistani officials refused to expand on the navy statement.
Indian officials could not immediately be reached for reaction. However, Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said at a Friday speech in New Delhi that Pakistan has been a "very difficult neighbor" since independence from Britain in from 1947.
He added, though, that "war is not an option."
"We must talk when we can, at other times we have to simply be vigilant and alert," Chidambaram said.
India and Pakistan have fought three wars since they gained independence.
The two countries began talks aimed at resolving their differences over the Himalayan region of Kashmir and other disputes in 2004. India put the peace process on hold soon after the Mumbai attacks.
Pakistan is trying seven men on charges they planned and carried out the Mumbai attacks, which left 166 people dead, but the militant network blamed for the assault continues to operate relatively freely in Pakistan.

Pak High Commissioner strongly refuted Chidambaram’s accusations against Pakistan

Responding to Chidambaram’s keynote address and remarks at the India Today Conclave, Shahid Malik rejected the allegation of the involvement of so-called state actors from Pakistan in terror activities.
Pakistan High Commissioner pointed out that Pakistan has a number of issues with India in the context of terrorism, including the objectionable activities in Baluchistan.
The Indian Home Minister acknowledged that Kashmir is an issue which needs to be resolved, and suggested that it should be settled through bilateral talks.
Shahid Malik infomed the large audience that Pakistan had come to New Delhi with an open and positive frame of mind for the recent Foreign Secretaries meeting and would like to see meaningful and result oriented discussion in the framework of the Composite Dialogue.
Earlier speaking at the Conclave, the Indian Minister made it clear that “war is not an option” so the two countries, both nuclear powers, “must talk when we can” and, at other times, “we have to be vigilant”.
“We cannot change our neighbour”, he said adding Pakistan has been a “very difficult neighbour from 1947”.
The Minister indicated that there may be another around of talks between Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir.