Apple, the world’s most valuable brand in Forbes list

New York, July 30: Apple Computers has emerged as the world`s most valuable brand in the 50 Top valuable brand list of the Forbes magazine.

"This (Apple) is a company that has faced setbacks before and bounced back to become the world`s most valuable brand--worth USD 57.4 billion," Forbes said, explaining the company`s number 1 position in its Top 50 world`s most valuable brands 2010 list.

"Apple shows just how a brand can survive and thrive even when a parent company stumbles. Apple`s sales in the late 1990s plummeted 46% over a 4-year stretch while the company lost money 7 times over 8 quarters", said the magazine.

Interestingly, tech brands occupied 4 of the first 5 places in the rankings and claimed 30% of the top 50 brands. Financial services and food and beverage firms each captured six spots.

Tech major Apple, which topped the list, was followed by software major Microsoft with a brand value of USD 56.6 billion.

Beverages firm, Coca Cola was third at USD 55.4 billion, followed by technology giant IBM, now worth USD 43 billion. Search engine Google was fifth in the ranking with USD 39.7 billion.

McDonald`s, General Electric, Marlboro, Intel and Finnish handset maker Nokia featured in the top 10 list.

"The brands on our list fared a little better, with sales on average flat in 2009. Some brands were hit hard by the economic downturn as well as their own missteps," the Forbes noted.

Toyota, Vodafone, Pepsi, Nescafe, Frito-Lay, ESPN and Gucci were the other brands in the top 50 list. (PTI)

That has 2b Elvis

Amazing sculptor Dalton Ghetti proves there really is a point to art - by carving this tiny Elvis on to the tip of a PENCIL.

The 10mm bust of the King is one of more than 100 pencil carvings Dalton has produced by painstakingly scraping the wood and graphite with a razor blade, sewing needle and sculpting knife.

They include tiny screws and saws, interlinked hearts, the alphabet and even a church.

Now he is working on an epic piece inspired by 9/11.

Dalton, 49, said: "I decided to make a teardrop pencil carving for each person who died in the attack, about 3,000. Since 2002 I have carved one most days and it takes me under an hour.

"When I'm done they'll form one big teardrop. It will take about 10 years but it'll be worth it."

Dalton, from Connecticut, US, began his unique hobby at school when he carved a friend's name into the wood of a pencil.

He refuses to use a magnifying glass and never sells any of his work, preferring to give it away to friends.

The longest Dalton has spent on one piece was 2½ years on a carving of interlinking chains. A standard figure takes several months.

He added: "I don't have a favourite - it's always the one I'm working on at the moment."

Facebear attempts to get toy ted home

A Facebook page has been set up to reunite a threadbare teddy bear with his missing owner.

The light brown knitted toy was found alone in a tea-room on July 18.

So caring workers started the online group, which has already drawn more than 200 "friends".

On the site, the bear is pictured enjoying an ice cream, taking a trip in a rowing boat and playing in the sand on a beach.

A caption reads: "I've had a lovely day out, now I'm ready to go home."

Liz, from the seaside town of Thorpeness, near Aldeburgh, Suffolk, said: "As much as he's having a great time in Thorpeness, he's ready to go home.

"We are sure his small owner must be devastated at losing such a well-loved friend. We think he's adorable."

The bear, who boasts black eyes, a pink nose and stripes across his tummy, also pleads on the page: "I'm lost. Help me find my family."

India to be world's most populated country by 2050

London, July 30: The world's population will increase inexorably, swelling from 6.89 billion to 9.49 billion, and India is expected to hit 1.75 billion becoming the largest country in the world by overtaking China by 2050, according to the Population Reference Bureau, a US body which supplies data to governments and institutions around the world.

According to The Telegraph, India, which hit 1 billion just a decade ago and now has a population of 1.19 billion, is expected to hit 1.75 billion, adding the equivalent of the entire population of the European Union in a mere 40 years.

China's population is expected to increase modestly from 1.34 billion to 1.48 billion.

The Population Reference Bureau also predicted that Britain would be the biggest country in Europe by 2050, overtaking both France and Germany as its population will swell by 15 million from today's 62.2 million to 77 million.

The predicted population of Britain would be higher than that of France, projected to be 70 million and Germany, which is predicted to have 71.5 million citizens by 2050.

The population of France will increase at half the rate, adding 7 million to its 63 million, while Germany's population is expected to fall sharply from 81.6 million to 71.5 million because of a lack of immigration and a far lower birth rate than that in Britain.

Europe, in total, will see its population dip from 739 million to 720 million, because of its low birth rate. (Agencies)

'Bikini killer' Charles Sobhraj convicted for US woman's murder

KATHMANDU, July 30: When this reporter went to Kathmandu's Central Prison to see Charles Sobhraj on Thursday, a day before the Supreme Court was to pronounce the final judgment on his seven-year sensational trial for a murder committed in 1975, he appeared nervous and cagey. An Australian photographer had been to the prison to contact him, for the third day in a row, and he was apprehensive the man was actually a contract killer hired by enemies, whom he did not name, to do a hit and run after he walked out of the prison a free man.

The 66-year-old's fears proved to be unfounded on Friday when judges Ram Kumar Prasad Shah and Gauri Dhakal struck down his hopes of freedom, finding him guilty of the gruesome murder of American flower child Connie Jo Bronzich in 1975 and upholding the life term announced by the district court in 2004 and upheld by the appellate court the following year.

In a packed and hushed court room, where Sobhraj's 22-year-old fiancée Nihita Biswas sat stunned, along with her mother Shakuntala Thapa, and brother Bijay, Shah enumerated in measured tones the reasons that led the bench to conclude that Sobhraj was guilty despite his denials that he had never come to Nepal before 2003, did not know Bronzich and never committed any crime in the Himalayan republic.

Nepal police, who had failed to provide either an airtight case or strong evidence, were baled out by the Indian courts where Sobhraj had faced about eight to nine trials, ranging from robbery to a murder charge. Justice Shah said the judgement was based on the India court proceedings and conclusions as well as at least two statements by Sobhraj in which he had admitted to have visited Nepal in 1975.

During a trial in India's Supreme Court, Shah said an Indian magistrate had asked Indian police to investigate the allegation that Sobhraj had killed a Dutch tourist, Henricus Bintanja in Bangkok. The fact that Sobhraj asked not to be extradited to Bangkok, and an "admission" that he went to Kathmandu under Bintanja's name and stayed in the Soaltee Hotel, bolstered the charge by Nepal police that Sobhraj had visited Nepal on Bintanja's tampereed passport and killed Bronzich, the judge said.

During the Indian trials, Sobhraj had also mentioned that he came to Nepal accompanied by his girlfriend and accomplice Marie Andree Leclerc and his Indian henchman Ajay Chaudhuri, Shah said. He also told Indian police the three of them fled from the Soaltee after police questioned Sobhraj for Bronzich's murder and quickly exited Nepal using the land route, the judge added.

The other piece of clinching evidence, the judges said, was the testimony by an Australian woman tourist who had travelled on the same bus as Bronzich from Pokhara. In her statement, the woman, the judge said without naming her, had said she was in regular touch with Bronzich. Bronzich told her she had made the acquaintance of a Vietnamese jeweller, whom she would be meeting at the Soaltee Hotel, the statement by the woman said.

"Even though there was no direct evidence, these links establish Sobhraj's guilt and we find no evidence to indicate that the district court and appellate court had erred in their guilty verdict and uphold it," Shah said. The judges also upheld the contention that besides Bronzich, Sobhraj, who used the aliases Henricus Bintanja and Alain Gautier during his Nepal stay, also killed a Canadian tourist, Laurent Carriere, and used his passport to fly to Bangkok and return a day later.

The verdict remained unswayed by the arguments put forward by Thapa, who is also Sobhraj's lawyer, including the rejection of the admissions reportedly made by Sobhraj in India. Sobhraj says he never made any confession in India or say he visited Nepal and the statements attributed to him are fakes forwarded to Nepal police by a former Dutch diplomat who has been stalking him. However, the judges ignored the contention as well as other discrepancies pointed out by Thapa, who was dubbed the "Devil" by state lawyers because of her spirited defence.

Thapa and Nihita stormed out of the court after the verdict, calling it a mockery of justice. "We are pinning our hopes on Geneva", Nihita said, referring to the complaint made by Sobhraj at the UN High Commission of Human Rights about his being framed and being sentenced without a fair trial. Earlier, Sobhraj had also indicated a possibility of appealing against the Supreme Court verdict and asking for a full bench – comprising at least three judges – to hear the case again. However, given his dismal failure to sway three courts, a full bench is not likely to overturn the guilty verdict.

Though there was no immediate reaction from Sobhraj, prison sources said he was glued to his television set where the trial has been given prime time space. The verdict would come as a glancing blow to him since till yesterday, he refused to believe that he would be found guilty. "There is no evidence against me," he had been saying.

The judgment however was hailed by the prosecution that called it the triumph of truth. "It shows that however tricky a case and however cunning the accused may be, justice ultimately prevails," said Shree Krishna Bhattarai, one of the state lawyers fighting to get Sobhraj convicted. "It was also a moment of triumph for us since we put in intense labour in our argument, detailing the trials in Indian courts. We sweated it out to produce a 137-page summing up and it wielded result."

Sobhraj, sentenced to serve 20 years, has already completed about seven years. Instead of remaining in prison for 13 more years, he could be released earlier due to his age and remission due to good behaviour.

With Friday's verdict Nepal becomes the only country to decisively find him guilty of murder. Though linked to 12 to 30 killings, mostly of European tourists, he had never been found guilty in court of murder, despite being branded with the tag "Bikini Killer". (TNN)

British PM rules out return of the Kohinoor

NEW DELHI, JULY 30: British Prime Minister David Cameron, who is on a 3-day visit to India, has clearly ruled out the return of the Kohinoor diamond to India, saying if such demands were agreed to, it would lead to empty rooms in British Museums.

"I know there is also a great argument about the original provenance of the Kohinoor diamond. I'm afraid this will disappoint viewers, but it's going to have to stay put," Cameron said in an interview to a news channel.

The issue about the fabled diamond, which was mined in the Deccan and is now part of the British crown jewels, had been raised by British MP of Indian origin Keith Vaz just before Cameron began his 2-day visit to India.

Cameron, however, pointed out that the return of the diamond would set a precedent, which could lead to the emptying of museums in Britain.

"What tends to happen with these questions is that if you say yes to one, you suddenly find the British Museum will be emptied," he asserted.

Besides the Koh-i-Noor, other Indian treasures acquired by the UK include:

THE AMRAVATI RAILINGS

These limestone plaques once covered the façade of a "stupa" - a temple built to house Buddhist relics - in south-eastern India.

BUDDHA SAKYAMUNI

The Sultanganj Buddha, known as the Birmingham Buddha, is a 2.3m tall bronze statue of the caped deity that was discovered upside-down in a bricked-up cavity by British railway engineer EB Harris in Northeast India in 1861. (Agencies)