With this tie up, Yandex will tap new tweets in its search results almost in no time.

Among various social media tools, Twitter has been recognized as significant while delivering real-time information.

After this agreement, Yandex will have access to all the public tweets which lie in Twitter’s database.

The partnership is very much similar to the one forged between Microsoft’s search engine Bing and the social short-messaging site Twitter.

Although the global search engine giant Google has started to begin its presence felt in Russia but until now Yandex is seen comprehensively well ahead occupying more than 60 percent of search engine market.

In order to promote its own social network site Google+, the search engine giant is no more associated with Twitter for search results.

As per the data released by web metrix firm Alexa, Yandex covers the traffic of 2.8 percent of global Internet market, while Bing reaches to 3.4 percent Internet users.

More than 100 million users follow Twitter on a regular basis, while Google+ has around 90 million users.

When asked about the financial details of the deal, both Twitter and Yandex refused to give any statements.

Under the laws in the United States, the government can ask any Web site to reveal all information to them without informing the concerned person or party, revealed James Williamson, information technology coordinator, who represents the Canadian New Democratic Party (NDP) in Ottawa, Ontario.

The NDP is at present the key opposition party in Canada whereas Conservatives are in the government. The NDP has 123 million records of many individuals holding key information under their possession. Diplomats showed their concern when the NDP was asked to seek for stronger encryption approach instead of cloud-based Salesforce.com as its platform for its e-mails and other contacts.

The party also stores its voter tracking information database, donor’s information and other things which need to be maintained in private. The Canadian diplomats want that the NDP should use some other platform, which it can handle alone and without any breach of information by any other party.

In case, the US government forces Salesforce and its authorities to reveal any information at least the NDP should be informed about that.

Varun Badhwar, an official from CipherCloud’s business development firm  stated that the unit provides  cloud-based encryption services  to Saleforce.com, Amazon and Box.net.

Cloud-based encrypton keys are used to keep data private.

Senator Richard Blumenthal andSenator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut have always emphasized on securing online security and demanded for proper regulations on this issue.

Senator Blumenthal stated that the proposed law will make online world much safer for companies and individuals who store important and crucial information online. In the absence of proper legislative guidelines, it is almost impossible to prevent breach of privacy in the online world.

The bill­­ ­­known as Personal Data Protection and Breach Accountability Act of 2011,  has been proposed at a time when the Congressmen are in the mid of firing debates over online security  and privacy issues. The Democrat government is also going to look into the matter for establishing guidelines for online privacy rules.

The bill would be enforced upon companies that maintain data for more than 10,000 people in their online database systems. The bill will also incorporate storage guidelines and ensure preventing breach of information.

Senator Blumenthal was in the limelight due to severely criticizing breach of information in Sony company which endangered 77 million customers of the company at risk. Senator pressurized Sony to disclose the extent of damage to the customers and asked the company to notify them.

If the new bill passes, the individuals will be benefitted in terms of asserting their rights to sue those companies which break the promises to keep data confidential.

The firefighters were able to extinguish the flames inside the southwestern boundary of the lab. The buildings were not gutted by fire but the authority said that the threat was enormous. The position of the fire was at 28,000 near the complex that is the location of the laboratory.

The plutonium facility of the laboratory was located at the north eastern site of the complex. The position of the fire was said to be in the direction of the south east. The laboratory occupied a very vast area in the city. The authority maintained that the facilities at the lab was protected against any threat by fire adding that it had survived the year 2000 wildfire which damaged some parts of the building and properties that were estimated to be about $1billion then.

The authorities also maintained that the explosive materials in the laboratory are safely stored at the underground bunkers that are made in concrete and steel.

The United States House Energy and Commerce Committee asked the mobile operators to explain their phone-tracking policy. The respondents’ operators include Microsoft, Nokia, RIM, HP, Apple and Google.

The Committee asked to explain their policy on data collection, its storage and security. Also the operators have to explain how a person can get himself exempted from being tracked, and if there is such provision how vastly it is being advertised and being made public. The date of next hearing is May 9 when the companies have to reply in details. How the data I collected, who has access to data and whether the data collected so is being shared with any third party.

The information available from the hardware of the mobile is generally taken and recorded and the presence of a magistrate may not require. In addition, today we can store information on server also. This additional feature allows the more number of users and more people can access data without any borders restrictions.

There is a good feature in GSM SIM which provide information about the recent call location and the tower to which the mobile was connected at the last time. This information can be availed without having any issue with operators and all.

The GSM SIM already provides access to recent call location, and sometimes the last tower to which the phone was connected, without mucking about with network operators or additional paperwork, but allowing anyone with access to the phone to know everywhere it has been seems a step too far.

Sen. Al Franken from a new privacy panel questioned Apple and asked to explain the reasons for tracking iPhone users’ locations.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will also investigate the matter and a senator from Washington State has declared to interrogate Apple on his own. Apple CEO Steve Jobs received a letter from Franken following a report by few British researchers, which revealed that iPhones and 3G iPads were tracking users’ location details by using iOS 4 logged.

The mechanism can detect up to 100 locations daily. The device collects data and stores in in an unencrypted SQLite file, which the company can easily retrieve from its back up synchronization on iTunes. The device owner can also save it, on computer that is supported with Windows PC or Mac.

The US privacy and security experts have raised concern in this regard citing the unencrypted data, which can easily be accessed by anyone who uses a Smartphone or tablet PC. If someone loses his mobile, it can pose danger to his privacy as the person who steals the phone can use it for wrong purpose.

The UN diplomat says that the accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant was more serious that what he predicted. The Japanese authorities are still trying to cool the reactor, whereas the unprecedented rise in temperature at reactors is exposing the spent fuel rods that are lying in empty pool in the reactor.

Japan has been offered assistance for assessing the dangers of Fukushima by the United States. It has also recommended a 50-mile evacuation zone for precautionary measure to avoid effects of harmful nuclear radiations from the plant, revealed the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jazcko. To regain control over the plant, a new power line is being laid to the plant to restore cooling system for the reactors, however its operators, Tokyo Electric Power Co. has already missed the deadline it set to complete the restoration work.

The Group of Seven industrialized nations has also offered to help Japan in this need of crisis and reinstall all infrastructure that has been devastated by the Friday earthquake.

However this effort would be focused on intervention on the currency market to weaken Japanese Yen and help Japan to gain from its exports.

Shuttle Discovery Docks With Space Station for Final Time

NASA reported that the space shuttle Discovery docked with the International Space Station successfully on Saturday. The docking was riddled with a series of problems and that has pushed the crew’s schedule.  The express logistic carrier now will be installed only on Sunday.

Hatches linking the shuttle to the station opened on Saturday at 4:16 pm and there was a welcome ceremony followed by a safety briefing. The shuttle Discovery is on a 11 day mission and will deliver a storage module, a rig and some spare parts to the six occupants of the space station.

The mission is headed by Steve Lindsey.

Interestingly the shuttle took off on Thursday afternoon from the Kennedy Space center, but not before the count down was forced to be stopped at five as there was a ‘computer problem’. The journey was not without problems. Four pieces of foam were noticed flying from the shuttle after it took off. NASA scientists didn’t foresee any problems from foams at that altitude. However, two astronauts aboard the shuttle have taken pictures of the thermal protection system for scanning for ruling out any damages.

The astronauts will move several items brought in the logistic career. A space walk is scheduled on Monday. During this, astronauts Alvin Drew and Steve Bowen will perform several operations including the installation of a power extension cable. The shuttle crew will attach a permanent module – Leonardo – to the space station.

The shuttle Discovery has so far carried crew members. It has circled the Earth 5,628 times spending 352 days in the orbit. It is sad that this will be its last mission.



While Republicans have asked for budget cuts, Obama has championed for more investment in education, high speed Internet, green technologies and other high tech concepts. He feels that investment on future cannot be sacrificed for anything. According to him, “If we want the next technological breakthrough that leads to the next Intel to happen here in the United States, not in China, not in Germany, then we have to invest in America’s research and technology, in the work of our scientists and engineers.”

A proof of Obama’s eagerness in this direction is the fact that his Democratic government now has extended research and development tax credit to tech firms. Intel and many tech companies benefit from this legislative move. Intel’s CEO Paul Otellini has reciprocated by announcing the setting up of a $5 billion manufacturing facility in Phoenix, a suburb of Chandler.

The highlight of this type effort is that on crucial matters Obama tries to rope in not only supporters but also those who disagree with him on other issues. Otellini of Intel funded Republican John McCain’s 2008 election campaign and has been a critic of many of Obama’s policies. But Obama managed to rope him in for his investment efforts in education and high technology agenda.

The two nations will implement the new treaty– new Strategic arms reduction treaty (START)  to restrict the number of nuclear weapons they can possess.

Hillary Clinton and Sergei Lavrov traded authorization documents with each other in Germany during a ceremony to enact the treaty.

Clinton stated that the treaty would serve as a “clear-eyed cooperation” for everybody’s interest. The Russian diplomat called it a mean to enhance global stability.

US president Barack Obama signed START treaty in last April with Dmitry Medvedev, Russian President substituting the older arms control pact. The earlier deal was signed during cold war in 1991.

The new deal states that both the nations signing the treaty would limit their nuclear warheads to 1550—reducing 30 percent from the level set in 2002.

Ban Ki-Moon, U.N. chief welcomed the United States and Russia for the step and appreciated the two leaders for taking lead on the issue of reduction of nuclear weapons. The new nuclear weapons reduction deal or START treaty had been approved by the United States Senate earlier in December. Russian Parliament too passed the bill to go ahead with the treaty in the previous month.