CHRISTIAN PRIEST , WIFE KILLED IN EATERN INDONESIA ; PRAY & MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN INDONESIA

A Christian priest and his wife were stabbed to death in a region of eastern Indonesia that has been wracked by sectarian violence in the past, police said Monday.
The bodies of Frans Koagow, 64, and his wife, Femy Kumendong, 73, were discovered by their grandson in the priest's home on Sulawesi island over the weekend with deep wounds to their heads and necks, said local police chief Aridan Roero.
Authorities have yet to determine a motive, he said, and no suspects have been named.
"We're still investigating," Roero said. "It's too early to say anything."
More than 90 percent of Indonesia's 235 million people are Muslims, but Sulawesi - the scene of religious clashes that left up to 2,000 people dead from 1998 to 2002 - has a large Christian population.

IT FIELDS MAY SEE ONE LAKH JOB CUTS BY SEPTEMBER

NEW DELHI: The Indian IT services sector may see up to five per cent layoffs -- amounting to more than one lakh job cuts -- over the next six months as companies focus more on cost-cutting due to persisting weakness in global demand, experts say.

Companies may reduce workforce in this fiscal, mostly based on stringent performance criteria, experts added.

"We expect the knowledge industry (IT) to see 3-5 per cent non-voluntary exits in the first two quarters of the financial year mainly in senior and middle levels," Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Senior Director (Management Consultancy Services) P Thiruvengadam said.

Given the fact that more than 22 lakh people work in the IT industry, five per cent non-voluntary exits would mean more than one lakh employees being shown the door by September. Nasscom estimates more than 22 lakh people were working in the Indian IT-BPO sector in FY2009 (till February), while indirect job creation is estimated at about eight million. International Management Institute (IMI) Director C S Venkata Ratnam said, "The IT sector is better off but it may see up to 4-5 per cent job losses in the first two quarters of this fiscal."

The global financial turmoil has also hit the country's other export-related sectors including textiles and some unorganised industries like auto ancillaries, Venkata Ratnam said. Besides, IT services (including engineering services, R&D, software products) exports, BPO exports and the domestic IT industry provide direct employment to 9,47,000, 7,90,000 and 5,00,000 people, respectively, Nasscom says.
The next 5-6 months would be critical for companies in deciding on job cuts. At present, layoffs are very few and more companies have frozen hiring to tackle the economic slowdown, Thiruvengadam said.

Last week, third-largest software exporter Wipro said it would freeze salary hikes and is uncertain about campus recruitment. Further, as per government data, over one lakh people lost jobs in the export sector due to the global downturn. Asked about what strategy they are advising, experts said adopting a wait-and-watch policy and a mature outlook would be the best policy. "If professionals aim towards multi-skilling and put in extra efforts to dabble in other areas of work as well, they stand a chance of becoming indispensable to their companies," Thiruvengadam said.

THE GENERATON NEXT BLUETOOTH, BLUETOOTH 3.0 TO BE 10 TIMES FASTER

The next version of the Bluetooth wireless technology is expected to transfer data 10 times faster than the current incarnation.

Gadgets using it could be on the market by early next year. The consortium behind the technology, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, said that it has united on a standard for Bluetooth 3.0, which will include an option for the faster data transfers. Those could be useful for moving music or movies from a PC to a cell phone or media player.

Three chip companies -- Atheros Communications Inc, Broadcom Corp and CSR PLC -- said they had products that would work with the new high-speed option. When the Bluetooth chip is called on to transfer a large file, it borrows a Wi-Fi chip in the same gadget to make the actual transfer.

When the Wi-Fi chip isn't needed, Bluetooth turns it off, conserving power. It can then maintain a low-power connection with the Bluetooth chip. While Bluetooth 3.0 with the high-speed option is 10 times faster than current Bluetooth, it's about 20 times slower than a USB cable, so it will likely be less than ideal for a complete music library or a long movie.

A combination of Bluetooth and a different, and potentially even faster radio technology, ultra-wideband, was announced in 2006, but delays in getting it to work prompted the Bluetooth group to look at Wi-Fi. Then the Wi-Fi-based technology was also delayed: When the Bluetooth group talked about that work early in 2008, it said gadgets could be on the market by summer 2009.

5TH GRADERS MAKE IT TO THE DELHI LOK SABHA RACE : PRAY FOR THE UPCOMING ELECTIONS IN DELHI

NEWDELHI : From fifth-graders to lawyers, the race to Parliament from Delhi has contenders distinguished by their qualifications or lack of them.

While academic brilliance was never an issue in elections in India, the polls on May 7 in Delhi will witness battle among a total of 160 candidates, of which 31 have never completed matriculations, five are just fifth graders and 18 lawyers.

Union Minister and Congress candidate Kapil Sibal, who is seeking re-election from Chandani Chowk seat, holds a law degree while his political rival and BJP nominee Vijender Gupta is a post-graduate in commerce. NELOPA (United) supported Milind Bharati has done MBBS and is taking on sitting Congress MP Krishna Tirath and former Delhi Mayor Meera Kanwria (BJP), among 13 others, from the Northwest Delhi seat. Tirath and Kanwaria have done BEd.

Buddhi Viveki Vikas Party nominee PL Premi, who is seeking mandate from Chandani Chowk, holds a degree in law and a PhD. BSP candidate from the Northeast Delhi seat, Dilshad Ali, is an electrical engineer. Party nominees Trilok Chand Sharma (New Delhi) and businessman Deepak Bhardwaj (West Delhi) are graduates in Arts and Commerce, respectively, while Rakesh Hans (Northwest Delhi) has completed just matriculation.

But the party's East Delhi nominee Mohmd Yunus has studied till Class V and Chandni Chowk candidate Md Mustaqeen has not gone beyond the primary school. Among some others, Congress candidates Mahabal Mishra (West Delhi) has studied till Class XII, JP Agarwal (Northeast Delhi) is a graduate, Ajay Maken (New Delhi) and Sandeep Dikshit (East Delhi) are post-graduates. Among the BJP candidates, Jagdish Mukhi from West Delhi holds a doctorate while BL Sharma Prem from Northeast Delhi and Vijay Goel from New Delhi are graduates. Cricketer Chetan Chauhan, fighting from East Delhi, has done BA and BCom. Congress and BJP nominees Ramesh Kumar and Ramesh Bidhuri from South Delhi are among 16 candidates who have not given details of their educational qualifications.