While on Facebook, according to the study by the University of Maryland's
Robert H Smith School of Business, the proliferation of various Facebook-related applications could have created more than two lakh jobs this year alone in the US with salaries totalling more than USD 15 billion.

Facebook applications have created up to 235,644 new jobs and contributed an estimated up to USD 15.71 billion in wages and other benefits to the US economy, it said.

Facebook is said to have a big announcement planned at the f8 developer conference on Thursday. The report in the Daily Beast says that the company is planning to add several new buttons to the social network. Similar in functionality to the "Like' button, the new buttons will be 'Read,' 'Listened,' and 'Watched'.

Facebook also plans to introduce commerce-oriented buttons like 'Want' down the road. Read

US president Barack Obama tweets:  Today, #DADT is over. Hear the stories of four men and women who served under the law.

This account is run by Obama2012 campaign staff. Tweets from the President are signed -BO.

DADT refers to the Dont Ask Don't Tell ban on gays in the US army. The US today repealed the 20-year-old law banning open homosexuality in the US military. Here's the background.

Lalit Modi on Twitter: The BCCI's termination of the Kochi Tusker's IPL franchise for non-payment of a bank guarantee, is a financial mess I predicted over a year ago and one I was prevented from trying to avoid during my time as IPL Commissioner.

Read

The toll in the car explosion in Ankara, Turkey has gone up to three dead, but remains at 15 injured. Read

Aiming to "awaken people about corruption and black money", Yoga guru Baba Ramdev today started the 10,000-km-long Bharat Swambiman Yatra from here. 

"My yatra, 2012 Mahasangram, will awaken people in the entire country on the issue of black money and corruption. The Mahasangram, which started from the land of Veerangana Rani Lakshmi Bai, will reach Parliament," he said on the first day of the yatra. 

After covering about 10,000 kms, the yatra will end at Prayag in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh. 

Terming as "unfortunate" the resistance to the commissioning of Indo-Russian joint venture Koodankulam nuke plant in Tamil Nadu, Russia today said all
safety norms have been taken into consideration in view of the Fukushima accident in Japan. 

However, it ruled out that the on-going protests will have any influence on Indo-Russian cooperation in future. "What is happening in Tamil Nadu is unfortunate. It looks like that the protests will shadow the commissioning of the plant which is going to happen in December," Senior Counsellor Sergey V Karmalito in the Russian Embassy said.

A radio station run by Somalia's al-Shabab Islamist group, linked to Al-Qaeda, has awarded weapons to children who won a Koran-reciting competition.

Andulus radio, based near Mogadishu, gave the group which won first prize in the Ramadan contest an AK-47 rifle and the equivalent of $700.

The second prize-winners received an AK-47 and $500, while the third prize was two hand grenades and $400. Read more on bbc.co.uk

Digging through landslide debris, troops and relief teams are scrambling to rescue victims of the earthquake in remote mountainous areas in Sikkim after they reached an area here today closest to its epicentre.

The death toll in Sikkim rose to 50 after the 6.8 magnitude quake struck this Himalayan state and neighbouring areas on Sunday, officials said, adding the overall death toll in the region rose to 79.

On Twitter: Ramesh Srivats: From now on NaMo shall be written as namo. Why? Because Modi doesn't like CAPS.

Here's what this is about

Just in: No bail for Kannada actor Darshan arrested on charges of assaulting his wife. His wife Vijayalakshmi, who filed the complaint, later withdrew it stating that her injuries were a result of a fall in the bathroom and not due to Darshan's violent behaviour. The withdrawal of her statement came in the wake of tremendous pressure exerted on her by film industry biggies and Darshan's family members, it is believed. 

Also read: Prove my affair with Darshan, says Nikita

Vaghela added, "The BJP government in the state had announced that Modi
would go on a three day fast, but he ended his mission within 55 hours! Why this haste? Modi has always backed out as far as his promises are concerned," Vaghela said before breaking his fast.

"It is surprising that a government has to undertake fast. What was the need for it? We decided to undertake parallel fast to expose hypocrisy and the dark side of Modi's Sadbhavana Mission," he said.

Away from the Himalayas, in flood-ravaged Orissa, waters have receded from the coastal area over a week ago, but people are waiting for damage assessment instead of repairing their houses.

"We are advised to keep the trails of destruction intact till the revenue inspector makes spot verification of the damaged houses, which would be photographed as an evidence of the loss," flood victims of Kendrapara district said.

Victims were told to keep broken houses as it is till the revenue inspector visits the village. "The sight of the broken house pains me ... I have the resources to rebuild the kutcha house on my own. But I will wait for house damage assistance from the government," the man said rummaging through the remains of his broken down mud-walled house.

For the second day today, commuters in Mumbai's western suburbs faced hardship after a small group of rogue auto rickshaw drivers, irked over the RTO
campaign against faulty meters, violently coerced several auto drivers to not ply. 

Stone-pelting on autos plying despite the unofficial strike was reported in suburban Malad and Kandivli. The recognised auto union leaders say they do not back the demands of the rogue elements and have asked authorities
to deal with them strictly.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar (known in India for her sartorial sensibilities) has rejected the impression that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had given her an ultimatum to attack the Haqqani network, blamed for a recent attack on the US Embassy in Kabul.

"There are some misperceptions about the three-and-half hour meeting I had with Secretary Clinton...There were no ultimatums from either side," Khar told reporters in New York. 

Pakistan has a "relationship of choice" with the US on the basis of mutual interests, she said. 

On the India Real Time blog in the Wall Street Journal: Sonia Gandhi mystery deepens, chocolates spied. Read

Ayeshah Alam Khan on Twitter: Apparently Facebook is not being banned but just pages that are hate mongering religious type...

Earlier today, the Lahore High Court directed Pakistani authorities to block access to all websites, including Facebook, that are involved in "spreading religious hatred" and to submit a compliance report by October 6. 

The Lokayukta police of Karnataka are conducting raids at the residence of Sohan Kumar, son-in-law of former Chief Minister of Karnataka, B S Yeddyurappa.

The raids are being conducted in on complaints of bribery in the Upper Bhadra case. ADGP, Lokayukta J Gaonkar said allegation was that a contractor had paid money to Sohan Kumar for an alleged favour in connection with the project.

On the Guardian.co.uk: The first Indian wines to be sold by a British supermarket could become a fixture on its shelves after coming close to selling out in record time.

Earlier this month, Waitrose became the first UK supermarket to stock the little-known brands from the sub-continent as part of a showcase of unusual wines from across the world.

Wine experts have questioned their quality and suggested the popularity is down to novelty value. But some of those trying to buy the wines -- a red and a white -- have found their local stores were already out of stock.

Read

Since France introduced its burqa ban in April there have been violent attacks on women wearing the niqab and, this week, the first fines could be handed down. But a legal challenge to this hard line may yet expose the French state as a laughing stock, says the guardian.co.uk.

Read

Now that the Kennedy tapes -- Jacqueline Kennedy's conversation with Arthur  Schlesinger -- has been released, here's more information.

Jackie revealed that US President John F Kennedy had told his Secret Service agents three years before his assassination that no one was going to shoot him and complained that his security was excessive. 

Following his 1960 election, Kennedy told an aide that Secret Service security was excessive and he was not at risk of being killed. "They're making me uncomfortable. Nobody is going to shoot me, so tell them to relax,' he said at that time.  

Kennedy was, however, gunned down in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963 by Lee Harvey Oswald. His assassination sparked off a string of conspiracy theories.

On the India blogs in the New York Times: The Anna Hazare movement has sparked a national outpouring ofconfession and complaint about bribe-paying.

Distraught parents searching for missing children, commodity traders, home buyers, rickshaw drivers -- people from all walks of life -- have come forward with tales of being forced to hand cash to government employees to secure a job, a birth certificate, a home or even their family's safety.

Read

Pakistan has refused to hand over a retired general, who headed the spy agency ISI, to an international tribunal investigating war crimes in Bosnia, according to a media report today. 

The Pakistan government cited medical grounds as its reason for not handing over former Inter-Services Intelligence chief Lt Gen (retired) Javed Nasir to the International Tribunal of Hague, official sources were quoted as saying by The Express Tribune newspaper.

The tribunal had demanded custody of Nasir for his alleged support to Bosnian Muslim fighters despite an embargo by the United Nations. The Bosnian Muslims were fighting against the Serbian army in the 1990s.

In the Daily Mail, the story of how former UK PM Tony Blair sent a gushing personal letter to Colonel Gaddafi -- after yet another visit to Libya -- offering to help the dictator identify African projects to invest in. Correspondence unearthed in war-torn Tripoli has revealed details of two secret trips by Blair to see Gaddafi in the months before the release of the Lockerbie bomber.

Read

A policy banning open homosexuality in the US military has been repealed after nearly two decades.

The dropping of  "don't ask, don't tell" means service members can now reveal they are gay without fear of investigation or discharge. "Repeal Day" parties have been organised across the country to mark the victory for gay rights. Read the bbc report.

On the bbc.co.uk: A necklace that belonged to a passenger on the Titanic has been stolen from an exhibition in Denmark. The gold-plated necklace was part of a temporary display of artefacts from the ill-fated ocean liner at Copenhagen's Tivoli park. Police are investigating and Tivoli has offered a reward of 1,000 euros (870) for its recovery.

It is believed the necklace belonged to first-class US passenger Eleanor Widener, who survived the 1912 sinking. More than 1,500 passengers and crew died when the Titanic foundered in the North Atlantic after striking an iceberg on its maiden voyage.

Response to the ban on Facebook in Pakistan on Twitter... 

Ayeshah Alam Khan: Rehman Malik must have sprained a brain muscle coming up with this beauty. Let's ban Facebook so we stop terrorism. Pass him panadol.  

Rezaul Hasan Laskar: Folks if you can't access Facebook, you know the drill: download Hotspot Shield & you're ready to go.

The Lahore High Court has directed Pakistani authorities to block access to all websites, including Facebook, that are involved in "spreading religious hatred" and to submit a compliance report by October 6. 

In an order issued yesterday, Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed directed the Information Technology Ministry to "deny access to all websites in Pakistan involved in spreading religious hatred". 

However, the judge directed the ministry that access to Google or other search engines should not be denied. He directed the authorities to submit a report on the implementation of the courts order by October 6.

The PM has sent Minister of State in the PMO V Narayanasamy to Chennai today en route to Koodankulam to hold talks with the locals who are agitating for the past 10 days against the proposed nuclear plant there.

"All safety measures in the plant are intact. We are hopeful that we will be able to convince the people and allay their fears over the plant," he told reporters.

Singh's action came after he spoke to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa yesterday seeking her guidance to resolve the issue after she shot off a letter to him, accusing the Centre of "abdicating" its responsibilities to address the
safety concerns of the people.

A day after Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, admitted that his sexual encounter with a New York hotel maid did not involve violence, constraint or aggression but still constitutes a moral failing on his part, a French writer said, 'she was lucky that sexual encounter with Strauss-Kahn didn't ended in rape'.

Tristane Banon explained why she filed a formal complaint in July alleging that Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her in a Paris in 2003.  

"My light-heartedness: I lost it on February 11th 2003,' the Daily Mail quoted Banon, as saying. "This man made me come to a flat...for an interview. He double locked, leaving the keys in the door. Very quickly, we were fighting, it turned bad. If I had not been very lucky, it would have ended in a rape,' she said. 

The army rescue team has arrived at the worst-affected areas Mangan and Singhtam in quake-hit Sikkim, which were out of bounds for rescue workers with massive landslides blocking key roads for over two days. 

"These areas, near the epicentre of the earthquake, are totally damaged. The roads from Gangtok to Mangan are blocked by massive landslides on at least 14 places," Army officials said following an aerial survey in the area.

The earthquake has left a trail of devastation damaging roads, houses, and other structures, uprooting mobile phone towers and snapping communication and power lines. At least 41 people have been killed in the earthquake in Sikkim.

Twenty-two people travelling in a bus went missing since last evening in the North district of Sikkim. The North district headquarters of Mangan, located 65 km from Gangtok, seems to be totally devastated, officials said.

Earthquake toll 74, landslides & rain hamper rescue efforts (The Times of India)
At least 58 people were killed and hundreds injured in Sikkim, Bengal and Bihar, in addition to 9 deaths in Nepal and 7 in Tibet. Read

Pak President Asif Ali Zardari an impotent puppet, says Imran Khan (The Times of India)
Imran Khan has used anti-Americanism to perfection. A latest survey ranks him as the most popular politician and the likely PM after 2014 polls. Read

Halt Kudankulam, Jayalalithaa urges Manmohan (The Hindu)

As protests by local residents and activists intensified, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to order the halting of the project until concerns and fears about the plant's safety were addressed. Read

Fast was to showcase Gujarat's progress: Modi (The Hindu)

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi ended his three-day "Sadbhavana mission" fast on Monday evening with the claim that never for a day during his 10-year regime had he and his government ever discriminated between the majorities and minorities. Read

Modi basks in spotlight, but riot shadow remains (Hindustan Times)

Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi sat on a three-day fast for "harmony" in Ahmedabad after the Supreme Court referred to a lower court a case in which he was accused of complicity in the 2002 violence. Read

Karnataka Lokayukta Shivaraj Patil resigns (The Hindu)

Karnataka Lokayukta Shivaraj V. Patil resigned on Monday in the wake of a media expos that showed irregularities in the allotment of two residential plots to him and his wife. Read

Baba Ramdev to begin yatra against corruption today (Hindustan Times)

Yoga guru Baba Ramdev will embark on a "1,00,000 km long yatra" today from Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh 'to awaken people about corruption and black money'. Read