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In times of recession when pink-slips, lay-offs, dismissals and firings have almost become a part of day-today office-lingo, keeping one's job intact seems to be a common target for all office-goers. Blame it on the economic crunch or your bad stars, just about everybody is an eligible target for firing.

From cutting upon casual leaves to happily slogging over-time, being punctual about dead-lines to even giving maska therapy to bosses...undoubtedly, almost every professional seems to be going all out to retain their jobs. But why not try some Feng Shui magic to recharge your carrerlife. Here are some simple tips, ideas and changes that you can embrace to bring positive changes in your professional life so that it's not affected by the recession monster...

Keep the wealth intact

The easiest way to define job security is when there’s a regular flow of income. “So, to ensure that, it’s important to charge the West and South-East areas of your office, since these govern the flow of income and wealth” suggests Feng Shui expert Ritu Kapoor of Astroyogi.com .

“West can be energised by placing a red object in that direction. Colouring the handle of your door red, keeping a red foot-mat, vase or statue in the West can be easy solutions, " adds Ritu.

For charging the South East direction, Ritu suggests a water feature (preferably running) in that direction like a water fountain, artificial springs or an aquarium, else, water mixed with sea-salt can be kept in a bowl if keeping a running water feature is tough.

Stability wanted!

It is usually seen that when an employee is about to be fired, he is usually transferred between departments and bosses. Thus, gaining stability in your professional life and making a firm grounding in office becomes thea pre-requisites for job security.

It is the South-West area of your office that needs attention in this regard. “Make the South-West direction heavy by keeping boulders (stones) tied with red ribbon and a mystic knot embedded in it,” suggests Ritu.

“Make sure you have a solid wall behind your chair in the office as it will give you support and a firm backing,” suggests Feng Shui expert Ashok Mehta, adding, “if there’s a window instead of a wall, you can find solace by sitting on a high-back chair and if even that’s not possible, you can place a small stone or an artificial tortoise on the window sill.”

Source:TOI

House prices in England and Wales rose by 1.7% in July compared with June - the biggest monthly leap in value since July 2004, the Land Registry said.

Every region recorded a monthly rise in prices, with the average home valued at £155,885, the analysis found.

But prices were still 11.7% lower in July than they were in the same month a year earlier and sales were also down.

The annual drop in prices was sharpest in the North East of England but at its most shallow in Wales.

The Land Registry, which records all completed property sales in England and Wales, is widely regarded as producing one of the most authoritative house price reports, although it does lag behind data from lenders.

It compares the price of properties sold now with the price paid when they were sold previously. However, repossessions and property transfers following a divorce are excluded from the sample.

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday deferred hearing on petition filed in regard to the Ambani gas dispute to October 20.

A bench headed by Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan decided to pose the matter for October after Reliance Industries counsel suggested the matter be heard on the 20th of that month.

Anil Ambani group counsel Mukul Rohtagi said he had no objection.

The cross appeals filed by Mukesh and Anil Ambani group firm on the petition filed by the government was to come up for hearing on September 1, but would have had to be postponed because the Chief Justice was to head the bench on the case was supposed to lead a constitutional bench on that very day.

MUMBAI: Extending gains for the seventh straight session on Friday, the Bombay Stock Exchange barometer Sensex rose by over 140 points as fund houses picked up stocks following strong global cues.

The 30-share index, which gained 6.5% in the last six trading sessions, added another 141.27 points to close at 15,922.34 points. The index touched the day's high of 15,957.67 points.

The wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty rose by 44.15 points to 4,732.35 points.

The market was supported by reports of firm Asian cues and better opening of European stock markets on increased optimism about the global economic recovery.

Stocks of realty, auto, capital goods, bank, metal and refinery sectors registered notable gains as investors rushed to buy fundamentally strong blue-chips.

China Unicom announced Friday that it had struck a deal with Apple (AAPL) to bring the iPhone to the world's largest cellphone market.

The announcement ends months of speculation and represents a coup for China Unicom, the country's struggling No. 2 carrier with 140 million subscribers. Apple's negotiations with giant China Mobile (nearly 500 million subscribers) broke down earlier this year.

"We believe China Unicom's high-speed mobile broadband network, coupled with … (the iPhone) will create new communication and different experiences for customers in China," said Unicom CEO Chang Xiaobin at a news conference.

A brief statement in the press release announcing China Unicom's interim earnings said that a three-year deal agreement with Apple had been reached on Aug. 28 and that the initial launch was expected to occur in the fourth quarter of 2009. No details of pricing or revenue sharing were announced.

But according to earlier reports in the Chinese business press, China Unicom has agreed to buy 5 million iPhones for $1.46 billion.

According to these press reports, Apple is building two different iPhones for the Chinese market.

The first to win approval by the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology does not receive Wi-Fi signals — a feature Apple agreed to remove in order to get around Beijing's restrictions on handsets with high-speed Internet capability.

But according to Dan Butterfield, editor of iPhonAsia, a second model has been submitted to China's Telecommunication Tech Labs for testing that is capable of receiving both Wi-Fi and WAPI, a Chinese standard for wireless networks.

The deal announced on Friday represents the biggest prize in Steve Jobs' two year campaign to blanket the world with iPhones.

As of June, Apple had sold 26.4 million iPhones in more than 80 countries.

China has some 700 million mobile customers. Its large and growing middle class has both disposable income and a sophisticated taste for high tech gadgetry. An estimated 1.5 million gray market and counterfeit iPhones have already made their way to China.

Sanford Burnstein's Toni Sacconaghi told the Wall Street Journal earlier this week that he believes Apple will sell 2.9 million iPhones in China by the end of 2011, an estimate that seems low given reports of a 5 million unit pre-sale.

(CNN) -- Hurricane experts are throwing cold water on an idea backed by billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates aimed at controlling the weather. Gates and a dozen other scientists have raised eyebrows by submitting patent applications for a technology to reduce the danger of approaching hurricanes by cooling ocean temperatures.

It's a noble idea, given the horrible memories from Hurricane Katrina, which slammed into the Gulf Coast four years ago this week.

The storm, which rated a frightening Category 3 when it made landfall in Louisiana, was blamed for $81 billion in damaged and destroyed property and the deaths of more than 1,800 men, women and children.

Skeptics applaud the motive of the concept but question its feasibility.

"The enormity of it, in order to do something effective, we'd have to do something at a scale that humans have never really done before," said Gabriel Vecchi, a research scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

How exactly would this hurricane-zapping technology work?

Hurricanes are fueled by warm water, and cooling the waters surrounding a storm would slow a storm's momentum.

According to the patents, many tub-like barges would be placed directly in the path of an oncoming storm. Each barge would have two conduits, each 500 feet long.

One conduit would push the warm water from the ocean's surface down. The other would bring up cold water where it lies deep undersea.

World reknowned hurricane expert William Gray, who's been studying and predicting the storms for a half-century, also doubts whether the proposal would work.

"The problem is the storms come up so rapidly," said Gray, a professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University. "You only get two to three days warning. It's very difficult to bring up enough cold water in two to three days to have much effect."

The idea itself isn't groundbreaking, according to Gray, who said it could only be feasible if the barges were put into place at the beginning of hurricane season with the idea that storms will come.

"But you might do all that, and perhaps no storms would come. That's an economic problem," Gray said.

Even if the technology does work, Gray said it won't completely halt a hurricane.

"There is no way to stop it. The storm might weaken in the center, but the outer areas wouldn't be affected much."

And flooding and storm surges are determined by these outer winds, Gray said.

When word of Gates' five patent applications first made headlines in July, alarmed bloggers lit up the Internet, expressing fears that playing with ocean temperatures could lead to catastrophe, possibly forcing a storm in a different direction.

That's not likely, said Kerry Emanuel, a professor in atmospheric sciences at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"You're doing something to the ocean that the hurricane would have done anyway," Emanuel said.

Cold water that churns up during a storm slows down a hurricane naturally. But the coldest water is usually at the rear of the storm, so sometimes it's too late to weaken [the storm], Emanuel said.

"The key is doing it a little sooner than the storm itself does it and make [the hurricane] weaker than it would have been," he said. "There are enough experiments to find out whether hurricanes' natural cooling could steer the storm in a different location, and the answer is no, or it's a very small chance."

While Emanuel believes the physics are conceivable, he says the cost of implementing the system shouldn't outweigh the benefit.

"This would only be practical if the amount [of money] you spend doing this would be less than the damage caused by the hurricane," Emanuel said.

Gates and scientist Ken Caldeira, both listed as inventors on the patents, did not respond to CNN's requests to comment about their venture.

The patents, which were only made public last month by the U.S. Patent and Trade Office, were filed in January by Searete LLC. The company is a subsidiary of Intellectual Ventures, an invention firm run by Microsoft's former chief technology officer Nathan Myhrvold.

A spokeswoman for Intellectual Ventures, which holds about 27,000 technology patents, didn't elaborate on the cost associated with the patent.

"At this point, there are no plans for deployment, so there is no talk of funding," she said, adding that it could take up to 18 months for the patent application to be approved.

Regardless, inventors say that this technology is not something they'll be rushing to use anytime soon.

"This type of technology is not something humankind would use as a 'Plan A' or 'Plan B,'" Paul "Pablos" Holman, an inventor in the Intellectual Ventures laboratory, wrote on the company blog.

"These inventions are a 'Plan C,' where humans decide that we've exhausted all our behavior changing and alternative energy options and need to rely on mitigation technologies. If our planet is in this severe situation, then our belief is that we should not be starting from scratch at investigating mitigation options."

Hurricane expert Gray agrees.

"I don't think this is anything that's going to be done in the next few decades in a practical sense, but maybe further down the line," Gray said. "I would love to see Bill Gates, with all his money, use some of it to experiment."

Source: CNN

Banks have decided to put a Rs 10,000 cap per third party ATM cash withdrawal from October 15, besides limiting such transactions to five in a month.

Indian Banks’ Association, which is the industry lobby of Indian banks, has sent a circular to its 150 member banks directing them to implement the decisions from mid-October, a source close to the development said.

“IBA has sent a circular to all banks asking them to implement these decisions on third party ATM transactions from October 15,” the source said.

Early this month, the Reserve Bank had put a Rs 10,000 cap per withdrawal from ATMs not owned by the bank in which the customer has an account, besides limiting such transactions to five in a month.

The apex bank had sent a communication in this regard to Indian Banks’ Association (IBA).

IBA had submitted its recommendations to the central bank last month citing the financial burden faced by banks on account of huge number of third party usage and small-ticket withdrawals.

Since April 1, RBI had declared third party ATM usage, including cash withdrawals and account enquiries, free for all customers and said that banks can charge Rs 18-20 per month from other banks in case of third party ATM transaction.

With the number of third party transactions surging post-April, banks approached the Reserve Bank through IBA to revisit the current norms and make necessary modifications.

Though IBA had also recommended a minimum limit of Rs 1,000 on third party ATM withdrawals, this was rejected by the Reserve Bank to protect the interest of small withdrawers.

SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) -- Software giant Microsoft apologized Wednesday for the apparent bad judgment that led to the head of a black model being swapped for that of a white model in an online advertisement.

The ad -- which showed three business people, one Asian, one white and one black -- was altered on Microsoft's Web site for Poland to place the head of a white man on a black man's body.

"We apologized, fixed the error and we are looking into how it happened," said Lou Gellos, a Microsoft spokesman.

He said that because the company was still reviewing how the swap occurred he could not comment further.

On Microsoft's official page on the social network site Twitter, a posting calls the swap "a marketing mistake" and offers "sincere apologies."

The business Web site CNET.com, which first published reports of the swap, wrote that the change in models may have been made with the "racially homogeneous" Polish market in mind.

LOS ANGELES: Software giant Microsoft Corp is apologising for altering a photo on its website to change the race of one of the people shown in the picture.

A photo on the Seattle-based company's US website shows two men, one Asian and one black, and a white woman seated at a conference room table.

But on the website of Microsoft's Polish business unit, the black man's head has been replaced with that of a white man. The colour of his hand remains unchanged.

The photo editing sparked criticism online. Some bloggers said Poland's ethnic homogeneity may have played a role in changing the photo.

“We are looking into the details of this situation,” Microsoft spokesperson Lou Gellos said in a statement. “We apologise and are in the process of pulling down the image.”

NEW DELHI: India is not considering raising retail fuel prices despite an uptrend in global crude oil prices, the oil secretary said on Wednesday.

"Global prices are not comfortable. But there is no proposal to revise the price," R S Pandey told reporters.

The country sets retail fuel prices below the market costs to protect customers, and it partially subsidises oil marketing firms for their losses caused by this.

Separately, Indian Oil Corp's chairman Sarthak Behuria said his company was currently losing Rs 2.30 per litre of diesel sold and Rs 4.20 per litre on petrol.

NEW DELHI: India will on Thursday unveil its foreign trade policy that is expected to eliminate or refund taxes and offer cheaper bank credit to recession-battered exporters, besides encouraging them to look beyond the US and European markets.

The policy will outline the government's priorities over the next five years for resurrecting the sector that contracted by over 31% in the April-June quarter.

Job-intensive segments such as textiles, handicrafts, leather and gems and jewellery will receive special attention by way of zero taxes or tax refunds and subsidised credit.

"Tomorrow's FTA may satisfy many... (but) may not satisfy everyone. It will be forward looking, taking on board the concerns of the industry, particularly the labour-intensive sectors. They will get special attention," commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma said.

Exporting units employ 150 million people and their jobs were the first to be put to risk following the demand slump in traditional export markets such as the US and Europe.

Sharma, who would be presenting his first FTP, said that he would like exporters to diversify their portfolio beyond North America and western Europe. As much as 54-55% of India's $168 billion exports land US and European ports.

Africa and Latin America remain the least priority for the exporters while full potential with south east Asian economies has not been realised. "I have directed my team to prepare a strategy paper for Africa and Latin America," Sharma said.

MUMBAI: The rupee on Wednesday depreciated by seven paise to quote at 48.82 against the US dollar in early trade on month-end dollar demand from importers and refiners.

Forex dealers said apart from demand from refiners and importers, a firming US dollar against some leading currencies also put pressure on the Indian rupee.

They said, however, expectations of more capital inflows by foreign funds as stock markets may continue its upward journey today in line with other firm Asian markets, capped rupee's losses to some extent.

At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (forex) market, the domestic currency was quoted seven paise lower at 48.82 a dollar. The rupee had lost 14 paise to close at 48.75/76 against the US currency yesterday.

The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex yesterday gained nearly 60 points on an upsurge in IT, consumer durables and refinery sectors.

MUMBAI: Equities were witnessing a choppy session as traders were squaring positions ahead of August series F&O expiry. IT, realty and power stocks were the top performing sectors.

National Stock Exchange's Nifty was at 4684.50, up 25.15 points or 0.54%. The broader index touched a high of 4697.80 and low of 4659.10.

Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex was at 15779.47, up 91 points or 0.58%. The index touched an intra-day high of 15831.49 and low of 15695.94.

BSE Midcap Index was up 1.13% and BSE Smallcap Index gained 1.97%.

Amongst the sectoral indices, BSE IT Index moved up 3.49%, BSE Realty Index gained 1.53% and BSE Power Index moved 0.67% higher.

TCS (4.27%), Infosys Technologies (4.14%), Wipro (3.52%), Sterlite Industries (3.44%) and Suzlon (2.77%) were amongst the top Nifty gainers.

Losers included GAIL (-2.20%), Ranbaxy Laboratories (-1.72%), Hindustan Unilever (-1.69%), HDFC Bank (-1.46%) and Jindal Steel (-1.35%).

Market breadth was positive on the Nifty with 30 advances and 20 declines.

European markets were subdued as gains in financials were offset by commodities. FTSE 100 was down 0.08%, CAC 40 slipped 0.08% and DAX declined 0.19%.

White House estimates $9 trillion in deficits over decade, citing cost of economic rescue as a major reason. Congress' budget office also shows increase in deficit outlook.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- New estimates of the federal deficit leave many questions unanswered but underscore one cold fact of life in Washington right now: Boosting the economy without making an already bad deficit worse is really hard to do.

The Obama administration said Tuesday that it now expects the 10-year budget deficit to reach $9 trillion, or about $2 trillion more than it estimated earlier in the year.

Peter Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget, pointed to a number of measures put in place to stem the pain of the economic downturn.

"As a result of a deeper-than-expected recession, certain spending programs (such as unemployment insurance and food stamps) are projected to automatically increase and revenues are projected to automatically decline, compared to our previous projection," Orszag said in a statement.

A 10-year deficit of that magnitude means the debt held by the public -- the accumulation of all annual deficits over the decades -- would reach 82% of gross domestic product. That's double the 41% recorded in 2008.

Douglas Elmendorf, director of the Congressional Budget Office, summed up the bind that policymakers face.

"Action to reduce federal spending or raise taxes could further slow an already slow recovery," Elmendorf said at a Washington briefing. But then again, he noted, if lawmakers don't act the deficit would get worse. "We face perils in acting and perils in not acting."

Keeping score

The new White House deficit estimate assumes that President Obama's 2010 budget proposals will be passed. It brings the White House in line with a $9.14 trillion deficit estimate of the president's budget made by the CBO in June.

The CBO, which is Congress' official scorekeeper, also issued an update of its budget and economic outlook on Tuesday.

But its new 10-year deficit estimate is based on policies already in current law, and so it does not include the president's budget proposals. That new forecast is $7.1 trillion -- up from CBO's March estimate of $4.4 trillion.

The increase is driven by a few factors, including supplemental appropriations that lawmakers have made since March, such as spending money on the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and revisions to the CBO's economic forecasts and technical assumptions, according to Elmendorf.

Elmendorf said the CBO would not be revising its 10-year deficit estimate of $9.14 trillion based on the president's budget.

But Tuesday's report did map out the effects on the deficit under a number of policy alternatives other than what's in current law. Some of those ideas have been called for by Obama, although his proposals are somewhat narrower in scope.

For instance, Obama has proposed making permanent the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts for the majority of Americans. Extending those tax cuts for everyone would add another $2.3 trillion to the 10-year deficit, CBO estimates. With interest, it would be closer to $2.8 trillion.

Obama has also called for the Alternative Minimum Tax to be adjusted so that it doesn't hit middle- and upper-middle-income families. The cost of doing so is $448 billion over 10 years, according to the CBO. Add in interest that would be owed on that debt and the ways in which the AMT fix would interact with the extensions of the tax cuts and the bill rises to just over $1 trillion.

Lastly, the congressional agency estimates that $1.8 trillion could be added to the deficit if other expiring tax provisions are extended. Some of these are among the president's proposals -- such as permanently enacting his Making Work Pay credit for lower- and middle-income families. With interest, the tab would come to $2.2 trillion.

The fiscal conundrum

Experts say that the CBO's deficit estimates would jump higher if the agency had updated its deficit estimates to account for the president's budget proposals.

NEW DELHI: Angry over delay in payment of their salaries by cash-strapped Air India management, over 20,000 members of airlines' employee's unions have decided to go on a three-day hunger strike from Tuesday.

"Over 20,000 members of Aviation Industry Employees Guild (AIEG) and Air Corporation Employees Union (ACEU) and some other unions from across the nation have decided to go on hunger strike from today, as the management is rigid over payment of our salaries," J B Kadian, General secretary ACEU said.

The employees threatened that they would again strike work on August 31 if their negotiations with the management fail.

"For the past two months, we have been working for betterment of the airlines, but the management is adamant on the 50 per cent cut in our salaries. It is not acceptable to us," Kadian said, adding "salary is our right and it is government's duty to pay us and no CMD or Minister can unilaterally decide on a cut".

Some airports in the country could face disruption in movement of the flights due to the strike.

Earlier, in July the employees had gone on a strike for two hours and staged demonstrations over the issue.

The meeting of the unions with the Air India CMD last Friday at the Air India headquarters in Mumbai failed and the next round of meeting is scheduled here in the afternoon.

MUMBAI: The Indian rupee on Tuesday fell by 20 paise against the US currency in early trade on expectation of heavy capital outflows and increased dollar demand from importers.

At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic unit declined by 20 paise to 48.81 a dollar over its previous close of 48.61.

Forex dealers said rupee turned weak on anticipation of increased capital outflows as the stock markets may open on a weak note in line with other Asian bourses, which are down up to 1.5 percent in morning trade.

Besides, huge dollar demand from importers, particularly refiners, led to the downward movement in rupee.

MUMBAI: The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex on Tuesday fell by 154 points in opening trade as foreign funds and retail investors preferred to book profits amid weak Asian markets.

The 30-share index, Sensex, which had gained nearly 820 points in the past three session, moved down by 153.92 points, or 0.95 percent to 15,474.83 in opening trade.

Similarly, the Nifty index on the wide-based National Stock Exchange lost 44.85 points to 4,597.95.

Stocks of oil and gas, realty, banking and metal sectors succumbed to profit-taking, dragging the Sensex down.

Market analysts said emergence of profit-booking by major players, including foreign funds, at prevailing attractive levels led to a fall in select stocks.

They said weak trend on other Asian markets, which were down up to 1.5 percent in morning trade today, too cast its shadow on the trading sentiments here.

Major losers were RIL, which fell by 0.16 percent to Rs 1,971.10, Reliance Infra by 2 percent to Rs 1,114.50 and Infosys Tech by 0.65 percent to Rs 2,065.

Further, State Bank of India moved down by 0.81 percent to Rs 1,775.05, ICICI Bank by 1.28 percent to Rs 757.85, ITC Ltd by 1.17 percent to Rs 237, DLF Ltd by 1.05 percent to Rs 390.10 and Tata Power by 1.81 percent to Rs 1,297.05.

Asian shares have risen sharply, boosted by comments made by Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke that the US economy is approaching recovery.

Japan's main Nikkei 225 index rose 342.9 points, or 3.4%, to 10,581.1, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1.9%.

Other regional markets also performed well, while European shares moved higher in morning trading.

Mr Bernanke's comments, made on Friday, along with record US housing data, have boosted investor confidence.

Markets in Thailand and South Korea advanced by 1.8%, in Taiwan and Australia by 2.8%, and in India by 2%.

Thailand was also buoyed by official figures showing the country has emerged from recession, with the economy growing 2.3% between April and June compared with the previous quarter.

The UK's FTSE index was up 1.1%, France's Cac 40 climbed 0.8% and Germany's Dax rose 0.9%.

The Fed boss told a conference in Wyoming last week that the prospects for a return to growth in the near term appeared "good". Separately, figures released in the US on Friday showed existing home sales rose by 7.2% in July.

'Too excited'

"The rally reflects the changes in external environments for Japan - that is mounting expectations that the US economy will recover," said Ryuta Otsuka at Toyo Securities.

However, he cast doubt on how long shares would keep rising, given the uncertainty of the forthcoming general election in Japan.

Such caution was reflected by some European analysts.

"Markets have been reflecting the government stimulus around the world and getting far too excited. We have to be extremely careful of the market getting too carried away and investors losing track of valuations," said Justin Urquhart Stewart at Seven Investment Management.

Last week, the Dow Jones index in the US finished 156 points higher at 9,506, its highest level in nine months.

Americans outraged at the release of the Lockerbie bomber are being urged to boycott Scottish products, including Scotch Whisky — an industry worth over £3 billion a year.

The call comes from a newly set-up American Web site which calls the release of al Megrahi by the Scottish government an “outrageous miscarriage of justice and a betrayal of the victims’ families.”

It will put more pressure on the ruling party in Scotland, the SNP, which decided to free al Megrahi, and which today is being forced to justify the decision to a specially convened meeting of the Scottish Parliament.

Connect the World tonight at 2000 GMT will follow the Scottish debate and examine the possible effects of a boycott of Scottish goods and services. What’s your view? Is the boycott call a gross over-reaction, or a justified response to a major blunder by Scotland’s political leaders?

Will you consider giving up Scotch? Send us your thoughts, and we’ll use them as part of our coverage tonight.