Results showed that a potential purchaser of statins (cholesterol busting drugs) is likely to encounter websites from a wide geographical base of generally poor quality, the journal of Pharmacoepidemiology & Drug Safety reported.

General contra-indications (condition which makes a particular treatment or procedure inadvisable) were absent in 92.4 percent of sites and contra-indicated medicines were absent in 47.3 percent, according to a university statement.

Key warnings on the appearance of symptoms associated with myopathy, liver disease, hypersensitivity and pancreatitis were absent in 37, 48.4, 91.3, and 96.2 percent of sites, respectively.

Most websites presented a chaotic and incomplete list of known side effects; just 13 (7.1 percent) presented a list compatible with current prescribing information. Only two thirds (65.8 percent) attempted to describe any side effects in lay language.

“Websites offering statins for sale contain little information on the safety of these drugs, which are intended as prescription only medicines,” Brown noted.

“There is an inherent danger in patients seeking to self-medicate in this way without consulting a healthcare professional and being appraised of ways to use the medicine safely,” added Brown.

“We look forward to conducive government policies and actions to encourage the required investments in telecom infrastructure and services,” industry lobby Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) said in a statement.

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) said, “With this crucial judgment, the sector will be restarting the process of receiving clarity in terms of policies and next steps.”

“In the new environment, India is expected to invite and attract large scale domestic and foreign investment afresh. This may take some time but is an improvement over an environment that mirrors uncertainty. Consumer interest should be kept uppermost,” FICCI added.

Ankita Somani, research analyst (Telecom) with Angel Broking, termed the court decision as “positive” for the sector on the whole.

“And there is bound to be consolidation as some of the players may not go in for the auction route stipulated by the apex court.”

Somani said none of the licenses held by Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communication were canceled as all licenses to them were issued before 2008.

Reliance Communications on its part said its licenses were all issued in 2001 and prior to that. Therefore, the company was not affected by the judgment.

Another analyst, preferring anonymity, said: “Consolidation is bound to happen as some of the existing players may not participate in the auctions. The existing players may now be able to revise upward their rates. They were not able to do so due to the competition.”

He said the established players like Bharti, Vodafone and others who did not get the specturum in 2008, are now better positioned as compared to the new players.

The court judgment would set right many of the policy and structural issues so that the serious players in the sector as a whole can move forward.

“The unused spectrum would now come back into the system and the scarce resource would be put to efficient use,” he added.

There are 15 telecom players in the country.

It would be interesting to note whether the government would be able to raise huge sum from spectrum auctioning now.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had estimated the loss to the exchequer under the old sale price at Rs.1.76 trillion (Rs.1.76 lakh crore).

“It all depends on the number of bidders and the kind of money they are willing to pump in,” a Mumbai-based analyst told IANS on condition of anonymity.

According to Benoy C.S., director, ICT Practice, Frost & Sullivan, South Asia and Middle East, there will be a tariff raise in the short run.

As in the case of 3G licenses, the auction route may jack up the initial capex investment, which in turn may lead to increased cost for telecom services, he said.

“From a long term perspective, it is going to help telecom industry as a whole. It will open up the opportunities for some global telecom companies who missed the race earlier to invest in Indian telecom industry. We will see entry of some mature MNC (multi-national company) service providers which will bring in a healthy competition and better quality of service,” Benoy said.

Analysts are also of the view that the Supreme Court judgment would also have its impact on the mobile telephony tower companies and the equipment vendors.

“The new development may be positive for independent tower companies. But the issue has to be studied,” Somani added.

Meanwhile, Idea Cellular said it had been unnecessarily caught in this situation just because its licenses were granted in January 2008 which was as late as 18 months from the date of application.

“Idea Cellular had filed a petition in TDSAT inter alia seeking to isolate our application from the 2007/08 applications, and thus requesting for priority under the then DoT policy of ‘first come first serve’,” it said.

Over 6 million Idea customers will be affected, accounting for four percent of the firm’s revenue.

“I told them that I will discuss this issue with my cabinet colleagues and find out what can be done,” Chandy told reporters here after a special cabinet meeting.

The IPL franchise was terminated by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) after it defaulted on an annual payment of Rs.156 crore as a bank guarantee.

Prasanth Mishra, a representative of Rendezvous Sports, met Chandy twice and discussed the problems.

“We have also met Sports Minister K.B.Ganesh Kumar to seek his help as well. We are also going to seek legal recourse of cancelling our franchise because in the past two franchises (Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals) were successful after they went to the court,” said Mishra told IANS.

Rendezvous won the franchisee rights for the Kochi IPL team for Rs.1,500 crore for 10 years.

Rendezvous is owned by a consortium that includes companies like Kerala-based Elite Group of Vivek Venugopal, Anchor Earth, Parani Development Pvt. Ltd., Anand Shah Developers and Film Waves.

The team had its trouble right from the start. Sashi Tharoor, a Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram, lost his job as the minister for state for external affairs after it was revealed that Sunanda Pushkar, whom he later married, was given sweat equity. Tharoor reportedly did the initial spade work to bring the owners together and bid for the team.

Then came a serious difference opinion between the owners and that too was sorted out before the team finally took the field. But then it defaulted in payment to the BCCI.

University of Michigan Ann Arbor engineers worked out a method in which vibrations in the chest cavity deform a layer of piezoelectric material, which is able to convert mechanical stress into electrical current.

Tests indicate that the device could perform at heart rates from seven to 700 beats per minute (well below and above the normal range), and that it could deliver eight times the energy required for a pacemaker, according to a university statement.

Researchers have searched for ways to prolong battery life, trying to power a pacemaker using blood sugar, or the motion of the hands and legs.

But these methods either interfere with metabolism or require a more drastic surgery, such as passing a wire from the limbs to the chest area, the journal Applied Physics Letters reported.

Furthermore, the authors write, the amount of energy generated is always larger than the amount required to run a pacemaker, regardless of heart rate.

Though the team has yet to develop a prototype that is bio-compatible, they say that the potential to package this energy harvester with pacemakers gives it an advantage over competing methods.

The lobbyists will approach NBC, which broadcast the Leno show, to provide a forum to a panel of Sikh scholars and notables to educate media and American public about the sanctity and sensitivity of the temple, it said.

NBC will also be asked to run a documentary on Sikhism during prime time to help spreading the true identity, image and message of Sikh religion.

Also since Sikhs have been victims of hate crime after 9/11 due to misinformation about Sikh religion and identity, lobbyists will approach the US media to run segments showing authentic message of Sikhism.

Educating the international media about true information regarding Sikhs is much needed to spread the true message of Sikhism and to put an end to the decade long spree of violent “hate crimes” against Sikhs, SFJ legal advisor Gurpatwant S. Pannun said.

“It’s as if we were standing in the workshop itself, and at the next easel you can see that the artist was working step by step with Leonardo. When Leonardo made a change, he made a change,” the newspaper quoted deputy conservator Gabriele Finaldi as saying.

The copy sits in a dimly-lit room awaiting the finishing touches of a two-year restoration, during which its true origin was revealed.

Curators decided it needed a face-lift because it was going on loan to the Louvre in March. Following X-ray and infrared studies, they were surprised to find a landscape hidden beneath the dark paint behind the subject, according to the newspaper.

Conservators believe the artist could be Francesco Melzi, one of Leonardo’s favourite pupils. “When you look at the copy, you can imagine that this is what the ‘Mona Lisa’ looked like in the 16th century,” Finaldi said.

The ‘Mona Lisa’ is widely believed to be a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, a Florentine merchant’s wife, and the copy makes her look younger and more seductive.

Miguel Falomir, chief conservator for renaissance painting, said: “When the X-ray revealed the landscape, we saw it was in absolutely extraordinary condition.”

“It was the most surprising thing to emerge in the conservation workshop in the 14 years I’ve been at the Prado.”

The copy has belonged to the museum at least since the 1666, first as part of the royal collection and then as a state treasure. It was first thought to have been produced by a Flemish hand after da Vinci’s death. Then it was believed to be a later Italian copy.

The Art Newspaper, which first published the remarkable discovery, said: “This sensational picture will transform our understanding of the world’s most famous picture.”

The licences were issued to companies, which now operate under the brand names Uninor, Loop, Etisalat, Videocon, STel, Tata Tele, Idea and MTS. But not all the licences that are currently with them pertain to the tainted ones awarded in 2008.

The judges virtually thanked the petitioners — Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy and lawyer Prashant Bhushan — and said the “misuse and arbitrary use of powers” may not have come to light but for some enlightened citizens seeking good governance.

The court also slapped a fine of Rs.5 crore each on Unitech, Tata Teleservices and Swan Telecom and ordered half of that to go towards the court’s legal aid services and the remaining to defence services. It also imposed varying costs on other companies.

“The exercise by the officers between September 2007 and March 2008 under the leadership of then telecom minister A. Raja was wholly arbitrary, capricious and contrary to public interest apart from being violative of the doctrine of equality,” the verdict said.

“He (Raja) virtually gifted away the important national asset at throw away prices.”

The verdict pushed Communications Minister Kapil Sibal into an overdrive. He met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee before a press conference in which he defended the government, saying implementation of policy alone was wrong.

“The court has indicted the ‘first come first serve’ policy. This was the policy of NDA (National Democratic Alliance) government,” he said. Blaming Raja, he added: “The order says the advise of finance ministry and Prime Minister’s Office wasn’t followed by then minister.”

His own ministry was then overseen by Raja, an undertrial who began his second year in jail Thursday.

India’s telecom network has grown into the the second largest in the world after China, with 926.53 million subscribers, serviced by 15 operators, including two state-run companies, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam and Bharat Sanchar Nigam.

With elections underway in five states, the opposition seized the opportunity to renew its demand for the ouster of the home minister, and said the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had no moral right to continue.

“The Bharatiya Janata Party would like to ask Prime Minister Manmohan Singh: Would you take some action against Chidambaram or will you continue to express your confidence in him despite so much evidence?” wondered spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad.

The main petitioner was clearly elated.

“The court has said the government must now get market value of these licences,” Swamy told reporters here. “As far Chidambaram is concerned, the court said the trial court can decide.”

Justices Singhvi and Ganguly also said the Special Trial Court of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) — that is hearing the 2G spectrum allocation case in which former telecom minister Raja is prime accused — will decide on Chidambaram within two weeks.

With this the focus shifts to the trial court, being presided over by Judge O.P Saini. This court has heard a separate petition of Swamy to prosecute Chidambaram and reserved its order on that matter for Feb 4.

Apart from the political arena, Thursday’s development had its impact on other areas as well. The stocks of the companies which hold the tainted licences fell sharply, even as that of older telecom firms gained in anticipation of subscribers shifting to them.

While subscribers served by these 122 tainted licences were left wondering about the fate of their service, experts said they were free to use the mobile number portability (MNP) scheme, which is in full force across the country.

“Basically, the time period of four months is the time for government to decide to come up with an enhanced market mechanism,” Rajan Mathews, director general of the Cellular Operators Association Of India (COAI), told IANS.

Thursday’s order does not affect companies that got licences before 2008, nor does it have an impact on 3G services for which licences were auctioned two years ago, even as Sibal remained optimistic on the future of India’s telecom sector.

“The judgement will bring clarity to the situation. It will bring sanity to the sector and it will bring hope to the sector because now the roadmap is clear. And we will get large investments,” Sibal said.

While Daniel Craig will be seen as the British superspy, the cast of the film also includes Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Berenice Marlohe, Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw, Albert Finney and Judi Dench.

The screenplay is written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and John Logan.

It was conducted by Hannah Gardener and colleagues from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and Columbia University Medical Centre, the Journal of General Internal Medicine reports.

Diet soft drinks are typically sugar-free, artificially sweetened, non-alcoholic carbonated beverages generally marketed towards health-conscious people, diabetics, athletes, and other people who want to lose weight.

Gardener and team examined the relationship between both diet and regular soft drink consumption and risk of stroke or myocardial infarction (heart attack), according to a Miami statement.

Data were analyzed from 2,564 participants in the Northern Manhattan Study, which was designed to determine stroke incidence, risk factors and prognosis in a multi-ethnic urban population.

The researchers looked at how often individuals drank soft drinks — diet and regular — and the number of vascular events that occurred over a 10-year period.

They found that those who drank diet soft drinks daily were 43 percent more likely to have suffered a vascular event than those who drank none, after taking into account pre-existing vascular conditions such as metabolic syndrome, diabetes and high blood pressure.

Gardener concludes: “Our results suggest a potential association between daily diet soft drink consumption and vascular outcomes. However, the mechanisms by which soft drinks may affect vascular events are unclear.”

“The Indian Army believes a major Sino-Indian conflict is not imminent, but the Indian military is strengthening its forces in preparation to fight a limited conflict along the disputed border, and is working to balance Chinese power projection in the Indian Ocean,” he added.

India and China fought a limited war in 1962 and still dispute each other’s territory. Despite improved relations, irritants persist between the two Asian giants, often leading to major hiccups.

The official also said that India had expressed support for a strong US military posture in East Asia and US engagement in Asia.

He said the US wanted its relations with Pakistan to remain positive, but their interests sometimes differed as Islamabad viewed New Delhi as an existential threat.

Clapper said the US relationship with Pakistan was a “challenging relationship but an important one”, as the interests of the two countries were “not always congruent”.

Noting that Afghanistan remains a hot spot, Clapper said: “During the past year, the Taliban lost some ground, but …Taliban’s senior leaders continued to enjoy safe haven in Pakistan.”

Asked by panel vice-chairman Saxby Chambliss about what was being done about safe havens of terrorists in Pakistan, Clapper said they were talking to Islamabad about it.

“Al Qaeda will increasingly rely on ideological and operational alliances with Pakistani militant factions to accomplish its goals with Pakistan and to conduct transnational attacks,” he said.

“Pakistan military leaders have had limited success against Al Qaeda operatives, other foreign fighters and Pakistani militants who pose a threat to Islamabad,” Clapper said.

“We judge Al Qaeda operatives are balancing support for attacks in Pakistan with guidance to refocus the global jehad externally against US targets,” he said.

Clapper said India had significantly increased its engagement with Afghanistan in 2011, but New Delhi was unlikely to send troops or heavy equipment to Kabul because it did not want to provoke Pakistan.

India’s increased engagement is aimed at helping the Afghan government sustain its sovereignty and independence during and after International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) forces draw down.

“We judge that India sees its goals in Afghanistan as consistent with US objectives and favours a sustained ISAF and US presence in the country.”

CIA Director David Petraeus said that while Pakistan had conducted operations in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Swat, they had not pressured the Haqqani Network or Mullah Nazir’s group nor those in Balochistan.