SpaceX capsule arrives at space station

CAPE CANAVERAL – A SpaceX Dragon unmanned freighter arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday after a two-day trip initially marred by steering thruster trouble.

Operating the outpost's 57.5-foot robotic arm, U.S. astronaut Kevin Ford latched onto the commercial spacecraft at 5:31 a.m. EST, about an hour ahead of schedule. The two craft were flying 253 miles above northern Ukraine at the time.

"That was a brilliant capture," NASA astronaut Kate Rubins said from Mission Control in Houston. "We'd like to congratulate you on a job well done."

Alluding to the thruster trouble, Ford offered his congratulations to SpaceX and NASA.

"As they say, it's not where you start, it's where you finish, that counts, and you guys really finished this one on the mark."

Ford was assisted by U.S. astronaut Tom Marshburn and Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency. The three are scheduled to berth the Dragon to the Earth-facing port of the Harmony module about 8:40 a.m., but work was proceeding ahead of schedule.

Launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the Dragon is carrying more than a ton of supplies and scientific research equipment.

Three of its four steering thruster pods failed to activate properly after it reached orbit, threatening to scuttle the cargo delivery mission. However, SpaceX engineers were successful in fixing the trouble and continuing the mission. A planned arrival at the station on Saturday was pushed back a day.

The Dragon also is capable of returning cargo to Earth. About 2,600 pounds of experiment samples and other gear will be brought back aboard the spacecraft, which is scheduled to splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California on March 25.

The cargo delivery mission is the second of 12 planned under a $1.6 billion NASA contract.

Windows 8 fails to revive falling PC sales?

Windows 8 review

Consumer sales of Windows-powered personal computers fell 21 percent overall last month, figures released by a leading retail research firm showed on Thursday, indicating a lackluster debut for Microsoft Windows 8 operating system.

Many in the industry said Windows 8 might revive slack PC sales, but a report by NPD Group, which tracks computer sales weekly using data supplied by retailers, dampened those hopes.

On the same day, Microsoft announced pricing for its latest device designed to break Apple's stranglehold on the tablet and lightweight laptop market. It is offering the Surface tablet running the full version of Windows 8 from $899, pitching it somewhere between Apple's latest iPad and MacBook Air laptop.

Since the launch of Windows 8 on October 26, Windows laptop sales are down 24 percent, while desktop sales are down 9 percent compared with the same period last year, making an overall 21 percent dip, NPD Group said.

Usually, a Microsoft release boosts PC sales because many consumers hold off purchases for several months so they can obtain the latest software immediately.

If the NPD's sales trends are borne out over the rest of the holiday shopping season, it would be a huge disappointment for Microsoft and PC makers such as Dell, HP and Lenovo.

"After just four weeks on the market, it's still early to place blame on Windows 8 for the ongoing weakness in the PC market," said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD. "We still have the whole holiday selling season ahead of us, but clearly Windows 8 did not prove to be the impetus for a sales turnaround some had hoped for."

NPD's data neither includes Microsoft's first Surface tablet, which is only available in its own stores, nor takes account of sales of PCs to businesses, which has recently been a much stronger market.

Larger tablet available in January

Microsoft's first Surface tablet runs a version of Windows called RT, created to work on the low-power chips designed by ARM Holdings, which dominate smartphones and tablets but are incompatible with old Windows applications.

A larger, heavier tablet -- officially called 'Surface with Windows 8 Pro' -- will be on sale from January, running on an Intel chip that works with all Microsoft's Windows and Office applications.

Microsoft said on Thursday it would price the new Surface at $899 for a 64 gigabyte version and $999 for a 128 GB version. That does not include the optional cover, which doubles as a keyboard, costing $120 to $130.

The company describes the Wi-Fi-only device as "a full PC and a tablet". It is priced above Apple's 64 GB Wi-Fi-only iPad at $699 and at the low end of Apple's MacBook Air line of lightweight laptops which start at $999.

The Intel-based Surface is thicker and heavier than both the iPad and Surface running Windows RT, but at 2 lbs (0.9 kg) is lighter than the MacBook Air.

Since Microsoft introduced Windows 8, it has accounted for only 58 percent of Windows computing device unit sales, compared to the 83 percent Windows 7 accounted for at the same point after its launch in 2009, NPD said. That was partly caused by poor back-to-school sales that left many Windows 7 PCs on retailers' shelves, NPD said.

One patch of light for Microsoft is strong sales of touchscreen Windows 8 laptops, which accounted for 6 percent of Windows laptop sales, according to NPD.

It is still unclear how successful Microsoft's Windows 8 will be in the long term. The touch-optimized, tablet-friendly system was designed to appeal to younger users with a colorful, app-based interface, but has confused some traditional Windows customers more used to keyboard and mouse commands. Beneath the new interface design, it does not offer any radical new computing power.

On Monday, a top Windows executive said Microsoft had sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses in the month since the launch. That is ahead of Windows 7 at the same stage, but it was not clear how many of those were pre-orders, discounted upgrades, or bulk sales to PC makers.

Juventus ready for 'biggest' game of year against Chelsea, says Claudio Marchisio

Turin, Italy: Midfielder Claudio Marchisio says Juventus are ready for the "biggest game of the year" against Champions League holders Chelsea in a fixture that is a must-win deal for both sides.

Antonio Conte's former two-time winners sit third in Group H one point behind the English giants and second-placed Ukrainians Shakhtar Donetsk.

Although Chelsea are also in danger if they don't emerge with three points from Juventus Stadium on Tuesday, Marchisio says the Old Lady of Turin will pull out all the stops to take a major step towards the last 16 knockout phase.

"It's the biggest game of the year for us," Marchisio said here on Monday.

"We really want to go through to the next round. It won't be easy against the defending champions, especially after they strengthened the team in the summer.

"But challenges like this really get us fired up. I hope the fans will be there with us as they are when we play at home in Serie A."

Defeat would prove a hammer blow to Chelsea's title defence and Juve's fans have some reason to hope.

The Blues, who are missing injured captain John Terry, have won only once before in Italy in the Champions League and come to Turin on the back of a 2-1 defeat to West Bromwich Albion on Saturday.

Roberto Di Matteo's side has also leaked 17 goals in their last eight matches in all competitions, nearly double the number of goals conceded in their eight previous games.

Juve's Montenegrin striker Mirko Vucinic, meanwhile, remains a major doubt as he continues to fight flu-like symptoms which have prevented him from even training.

But Angelo Alessio, Juve's stand-in coach while Antonio Conte serves a lengthy suspension, said he is unconcerned.

"We've recently scored 10 goals in two games, and we continue to create scoring chances," said Alessio. "Whoever plays (in Vucinic's place) will be ready whether he has played a lot or hardly at all."

Sebastian Giovinco is a likely starter up front in a 3-5-2 formation and could be joined by either Fabio Quagliarella, Alessandro Matri or Dane Nicklas Bendtner.

With Juve trailing 2-1 at Stamford Bridge at the start of the group phase, Quagliarella came off the bench to score a fine equaliser to level the scores 2-2.

Ponty Chadha death: Brother Hardeep fired first, say police

Investigators working on the Delhi farmhouse shootout that left liquor and real estate baron Ponty Chadha and his brother Hardeep dead today claimed to have figured out the sequence of events leading to the sensational killings.

The Delhi police said Saturday's encounter between the two brothers was sparked off by Mr Chadha's alleged attempt to lock up the Chattarpur farmhouse that he and Hardeep had a dispute over.

Police said Mr Chadha, whose real name is Gurdeep, visited the farmhouse at around 10.30 am with his friend Sukhdev Singh, who heads the Uttarakhand Minorities Commission.

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Mr Chadha, 55, allegedly asked his men to dab black paint over the farmhouse board carrying Hardeep's name. An enraged Hardeep, investigators said, got a wind of this and rushed to the farmhouse from Noida around noon.

Police said Hardeep first ran into Mr Chadha's aide Narender at the farmhouse gates and shot him. He then fired several shots at Mr Chadha and his SUV, using his licenced 9-mm pistol.

Mr Singh told the police that Hardeep then turned the gun on him and fired twice, following which his personal security officer Sachin Tyagi from the Uttarakhand police opened fire in retaliation.

Mr Tyagi has been detained, but the police are yet to arrest him.

The police have registered a murder and attempt to murder case. Another case of trespassing and kidnapping has been registered on the complaint of Hardeep's aide Nandlal, who told the police that Mr Chadha, after arriving at the farmhouse, confined him and some other employees to a room.

The shootout happened on Saturday around 1 pm. Mr Chadha suffered 15 bullet wounds and Hardeep four. While most bullets went through Mr Chadha's body, four remained lodged and were removed in two post-mortems today.

Fifteen people are being questioned in the case and call records of Mr Chadha being checked.

This was the second incident of firing at Mr Chadha's residence. On October 5, gunshots were reported from his house in Uttar Pradesh's Moradabad district.

The three Chadha brothers - Ponty, Hardeep and Rajinder - were jointly managing the estimated Rs. 6,000-crore Wave Inc, formerly the Chadha Group, which has diverse business interests in fields ranging from distilleries, multiplexes, sugar to paper mills.

Mr Chadha was thought to have been close to several prominent politicians. He hit the headlines in February this year when income tax officials conducted searches at his premises in Delhi, Noida, Moradabad and Lucknow.

Muslim doctor took care of 'Hindu' Bal Thackeray in the last years

Mumbai: In one of the nicest ironies in Shiv Sena supremo and 'Hindutva' champion Bal Thackeray's life, the doctor who treated him for the past five years and was with him in his last hours was a Muslim.

Dr Jalil Parkar, well known Pulmonologist from Lilavati hospital who had been Thackeray's trusted physician for the last five years, made the announcement of Sena chief's death last evening with tears in his eyes before the crowd of party workers and mediapersons here.

Dr Parkar, a Muslim, earned the faith of Thackeray family after he successfully treated the Sena patriarch's chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a lung disease that makes breathing difficult, some years ago.

From thereon, every time Thackeray developed health complications, Dr Parkar was called in. He became so close to the family that in the recent years he was spotted on the dais with other VIPs at the annual Dussehra rally of Shiv Sena.

Dr Parkar is credited with saving Thackeray's life five times in five years. When senior Thackeray needed a second heart intervention in 2009 (the first was needed in 1996), it was Dr Parkar who prescribed the treatment which was readily accepted by the Sena chief.

When Uddhav Thackeray, his son and Shiv Sena executive president, needed a heart surgery some months ago, it was again Dr Parkar who led the medical team which treated him.

Though there was some commentary in political circles about Thackeray's personal doctor being a Muslim, Dr Parkar never commented on this aspect. All he would say was the Sena Chief had been very kind to him.

Samsung Galaxy Note II sells 3 mn units in one month

London: South Korean mobile maker Samsung has announced that it has sold over three million units of its Galaxy Note II smartphones in a little over a month after its launch.

The South Korean firm, which was the world's largest maker of smartphones in the July-September quarter, said it took 37 days for the oversize smartphone to reach the sales figure.

The Note II was released first in South Korea in September and in the U.S. and other countries in the following month, the Daily Mail reports.

The Note was one of the few 5-inch smartphones in the market when the first model was unveiled last year, making some people believe it would become a ''tweener'' that is neither a tablet nor a smartphone.

According to the paper, the Note series is one of the two key mobile devices from Samsung on the high-end smartphone segment, along with flagship Galaxy S III smartphone.

Can the iPhone 5 at Rs 45,500 take down Android

Apple’s iPhone 5 will be officially launched in India today, at a starting price of Rs 45,500 the basic 16GB version.

According to Redington, one of Apple’s two distribution partners in India, the basic 16GB version of the iPhone 5 will be priced at Rs 45, 500, while the 32GB and 64GB will be priced Rs52500 and Rs 59500 respectively.

This makes it much more expensive than the Samsung Galaxy S III which is available on Flipkart for Rs 34,900 and the HTC One X which sells on Flipkart for Rs 34,999.


Online retailers like Infibeam and Saholic had started accepting preorders for the 16GB variant of iPhone 5 with an advance payment of Rs 5,000 last week. Saholic had listed the 16GB version for Rs45500 with an estimated shipping date of 4 November.

Apple’s iPhone 5 has been one of the fastest selling smartphones ever as the company sold nearly 5 million devices in the first weekend itself. India might not be on the top of the list as far as Apple is concerned but the launch of the iPhone 5 has been much awaited.

Key features of the iPhone are: a 4 inch screen with a higher screen resolution of 1136×640 pixel which comes to around 326 ppi. That’s Retina Display quality for you.

The iPhone5 has the dual-core A6 chip, an 8 megapixel rear camera with a sapphire crystal lens cover for ‘clearer pictures’ and a 1.2 megapixel front camera. The dock connector is now called Lightning, and is an eight-pin plug.