Facebook puts focus on photos in new look, may boost ads

Facebook Inc introduced the biggest change in years to its popular newsfeed on Thursday, with a new look and focus on photos that is expected to make the social network more ad-friendly and may entice users to spend more time on the website.
The changes to the newsfeed, whose look and feel had remained largely unchanged since Facebook's inception, include a division into several sections, with separate areas for photographs and music.
The newsfeed is the ever-changing stream of photos, videos and comments uploaded from friends, and is the first page most users see upon logging in.
Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said the makeover was part of an effort to position the social network as a "personalized newspaper," complete with different sections for users to explore.
It comes with a revamped interface that gives more prominence to visual media, such as photos and videos.
The makeover comes roughly a month after Facebook introduced a new social search feature it dubbed "graph search" that makes it easier for the social network's more than 1 billion users to discover more content on the social network.
The much-needed changes unveiled on Thursday, which standardize the network's look across different types of desktop and mobile devices, bring Facebook up-to-date as Google+, the much younger social network started by Google Inc, begins to incorporate more video and images.
"This is just going to provide more opportunity for people to click around and stick around," said Brian Blau, an analyst with industry research firm Gartner, about the revamped newsfeed.
"The newsfeed was kind of outdated. This sort of brings it up to maybe what's comparable to...their competition, and partner sites that are focusing on media and richness."
Facebook's newsfeed is one of three "pillars" of the service, along with search and user profiles.
The updated newsfeed provides more space for the photos and videos that users share on the network, and provides a more consistent look and feel between the version for PCs and for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. The changes will begin rolling out in limited fashion from Thursday, Facebook said.
Facebook executives say the updates will help keep organized the increasing jumble of content available on the social network as its user base grows.
The last major update to the feature occurred in September 2011. Since then, the company has incorporated ads directly into the feed and has shifted its focus to creating "mobile-first experiences," because more people now access the social network from smartphones than from desktop computers.
FACEBOOK VERSUS GOOGLE
Marketers will be able to fashion more compelling ads thanks to the increased real estate for photos, said Hussein Fazal, the chief executive of AdParlor, a firm that helps companies advertise on Facebook. "Larger images will result in higher click through-rates, a higher level of engagement and better performance," Fazal wrote in an email.
Still, analysts say the company needs to tread carefully to avoid inundating users' various feeds with advertising, as Facebook tries to sustain a rapid pace of growth that helped it debut on public markets at the highest-ever valuation for a technology company.
The world's largest social network is moving to regain Wall Street's confidence after its botched IPO last year, addressing concerns about its long-term prospects - many of which center on an industry-wide shift toward the use of mobile devices.
Facebook shares, which are still more than a quarter off their IPO price of $38, closed up 4 percent at $28.57 on Thursday on the Nasdaq.
Facebook and Google, which both got their start on desktop computers, are now managing a transition of their products onto smartphones and tablets, which typically yield less revenue than on PCs.
The two Internet mainstays are also waging a war for revenue in mobile advertising - a market that is still small compared with the traditional desktop but that is growing exponentially.
In terms of overall mobile advertising, Google commanded a 53.5 percent share in 2012, aided by its dominance in search-based ads. Facebook had just 8.4 percent, a distant runner-up, according to estimates from research house eMarketer.
But in terms of mobile display ad sales, Facebook narrowly edges out its rival with 18.4 percent of the market versus Google's 17 percent, the research outfit estimated.
PRESSURE ON THE SYSTEM
The makeover is partly prompted by complaints about increasing clutter on Facebook's network.
As Facebook has grown to more than 1 billion users, the amount of content that users and companies post to the website has surged. Facebook users only see a small portion of that content, culled by Facebook's proprietary algorithm.
In recent months, some companies and users, including entrepreneur Mark Cuban, have grumbled that their content was not getting enough exposure in the newsfeed, because Facebook gives paid ads priority in the newsfeed.

Facebook's vice president of product, Chris Cox, acknowledged that there was "more pressure on the system" to feature the various content, as Facebook has grown in size.
The additional newsfeeds provide more opportunities for content to appear in front of users. A photos-only feed displays pictures shared by a user's connections on Facebook as well as on Facebook-owned Instagram and other photo apps that are integrated with the social network.
A revamped version of an existing but little-used Music feed aggregates the songs that a user's friends are listening to, and includes posts from bands and performers in which a user has expressed an interest.
Facebook also introduced a "Friends Only" feed that displays every message shared by a user's friends in chronological order – rather than chosen by an algorithm – as well as a "Following" feed that gathers posts from news publishers, celebrities, sports teams and other groups or businesses that a user subscribes to.
"The basic idea is sometimes you want five minutes and you want to see the top stuff, sometimes you want to spend an hour and go through a lot of different stuff," Cox said in an interview after the event.
The additional feeds could also provide Facebook with more space to offer ads on its newsfeed, though a spokeswoman said the additional news feeds would not initially feature ads.

North Korea hit by new UN sanctions after test

UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council responded swiftly to North Korea's latest nuclear test by punishing the reclusive regime Thursday with tough, new sanctions targeting its economy and leadership, despite Pyongyang's threat of a pre-emptive nuclear strike on the United States.

The penalties came in a unanimous resolution drafted by the U.S. along with China, which is North Korea's main benefactor. Beijing said the focus now should be to ``defuse the tensions'' by restarting negotiations.

The resolution sent a powerful message to North Korea's new young leader, Kim Jong Un, that the international community condemns his defiance of Security Council bans on nuclear and ballistic tests and is prepared to take even tougher action if he continues flouting international obligations.

"Taken together, these sanctions will bite, and bite hard," US Ambassador Susan Rice said. ``They increase North Korea's isolation and raise the cost to North Korea's leaders of defying the international community."

The new sanctions came in response to North Korea's underground nuclear test on Feb. 12 and were the fourth set imposed by the UN since the country's first test in 2006. They are aimed at reining in Pyongyang's nuclear and missile development by requiring all countries to freeze financial transactions or services that could contribute to the programs.

North Korea kept up its warlike rhetoric Friday after the UN vote, issuing a statement saying it was canceling a hotline and a nonaggression pact with rival South Korea.

North Korea's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, the country's arm for dealing with cross-border affairs with Seoul, said it will retaliate with ``crushing strikes'' if enemies intrude into its territory ``even an inch and fire even a single shell.'' It also said it was voiding past nuclear disarmament agreements between North and South Korea.

South and North Korea agreed in a 1992 joint declaration not to produce, test or use nuclear weapons. North Korea has since conducted three nuclear tests.

The resolution also targets North Korea's ruling elite by banning all nations from exporting expensive jewelry, yachts, luxury automobiles and race cars to the North. It also imposes new travel sanctions that would require countries to expel agents working for sanctioned North Korean companies.

The success of the sanctions could depend on how well they are enforced by China, where most of the companies and banks that North Korea is believed to work with are based.

Tensions with North Korea have escalated since Pyongyang launched a rocket in December and conducted last month's nuclear test the first since Kim took charge. Many countries, especially in the region, had hoped he would steer the country toward engagement and resolution of the dispute over its nuclear and missile programs. Instead, the North has escalated its threats.

Immediately before the Security Council vote, a spokesman for Pyongyang's Foreign Ministry said the North will exercise its right for ``a pre-emptive nuclear attack to destroy the strongholds of the aggressors'' because Washington is ``set to light a fuse for a nuclear war.''

The statement was carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency.

‘Saheb Biwi aur Gangster Returns’ review: A ‘ghamasan’ return, this one!

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Ananya Bhattacharya

There are times when you are so overwhelmed by a film that you need some time for it to sink in. This is one such film. Director Tigmanshu Dhulia’s ‘Saheb, Biwi aur Gangster Returns’ is nothing short of a miracle. It pervades the senses, lets you clutch your sides out of laughter, leaves you in tears, makes you gape at it in wonder – all in a mere span of 145 minutes. And that bit of time too flies away at an indescribable pace. Before one knows, ‘Saheb, Biwi aur Gangster Returns’ captures one to the limit of their last blink, mesmerises one and leaves them with a plethora of inexpressible emotions. If its prequel ‘Saheb, Biwi aur Gangster’ was a terrific film, this one is twofold so. Or maybe manifold.

Dhulia’s script is original, fresh and takes the story forward from where the last one had ended. There are well fleshed out characters who slip into their roles with breathtaking ease. Not one character is wasted; not one moment seems unnecessary. In times when prolixity is passé, Dhulia revels in holding a viewer’s attention span for the entire duration: one wayward glance, and one regrets missing something!

‘Saheb, Biwi aur Gangster’ ends with Madhvi (Mahie Gill) – the Biwi – killing Babloo – the Gangster (Randeep Hooda). Aditya Pratap Singh (Jimmy Sheirgill as Saheb), meanwhile, is paralysed waist down from a gunshot. Madhvi takes over the politics of the area and seals sympathy votes in her favour, and consequently is elected the MLA from her territory.

Saheb and Biwi’s strained marital relationship, glimpses of which were visible in the earlier part, have escalated to indomitable levels now. So have Biwi’s alcohol consumption, eccentricity and pining for her husband. Aditya, meanwhile, takes a liking to his stepmother’s friend’s daughter Ranjana (Soha). Ranjana is in love with Indrajeet Singh (Irrfan), a prince whose ancestors had lost their kingdom to the neighbouring king – Aditya Pratap’s ancestor – and who is fondly called ‘Raja Bhaiyya’ by his people.

When ‘Bunny Uncle’ (Raj Babbar) – Soha’s father – hears that Aditya Pratap, a married man, has taken a fancy to his daughter, his rage is understandable. Just that the Saheb is a man who can get Ranjana’s brother arrested in Dubai on false charges and then arm-twist her father to get her engaged to him. Indrajeet doesn’t hesitate to announce war on his ancestral enemy’s clan – and says, “Jung hogi... ghamasan hogi...” (There will be war. A dangerous one.)

In his journey to reclaiming his love from the scheming Saheb, Indra charms the Biwi, is deviated on the way, goes to every length and breadth of what his commitment to Ranjana entails him to do... In between, there are politicians to be tackled, people to be killed off, his police inspector of a younger brother (Parvesh Rana) to be taken under his wing. The journey of ‘Saheb, Biwi aur Gangster Returns’ is one fraught with twists in every turn of the tale.

Jimmy Sheirgill’s act is spectacular to say the least. The sheer brilliance with which he portrays the frustrations of a man confined to a wheelchair, who can do nothing but watch his whimsical wife squander his work away, is extremely laudable.

Mahie Gill – the Bertha Mason-ish Biwi – who shoots a gun with as much ease as she does her glances, is terrific – for want of a more intense word. She packs her performance with extreme poignancy on the one hand and shrewdness on the other. Nobody can even afford to neglect either Mahie the actor or Madhvi the character. While you can’t help not admiring her accomplishments with the brain, you end up feeling sad for this woman who can stop short at nothing in her quest of getting her Saheb back.

Irrfan Khan... how does one begin speaking of him! Irrfan’s Indrajeet Singh – the prince who wants to be the knight in shining armour for his damsel who calls him out in her distress – is one that might go down in the history of Hindi cinema as one of the most powerful of characters in this era. The actor leaves one laughing hard at his comic antics, makes one admire him in moments such as when he shoots a Polo ball at Aditya Pratap Singh, and at other times, leaves one in tears. For an actor who can make an entire gamut of emotions come alive on a viewer’s face, there’s hardly anything that needs to be said about his skills. And Irrfan does so with extreme potency.

Soha Ali Khan, in her moments, is exquisite. Distressed at times, in the throes of a transactional relationship, Soha leaves her viewers mesmerised with her performance. As an addition to the team of ‘Saheb, Biwi aur Gangster Returns’, this Khan delivers a power-packed act. Parvesh Rana as the cop justifies the fact that years of Television have done wonders to chisel his acting skills. The supporting cast of the film is entirely admirable, and Raj Babbar – a brilliant actor – finds a special mention.

The screenplay calls for an ear-splitting applause. So does the background score, the camera work, the art direction, the nuances, the subtle pot shots at the contemporary politics of the day, the acting – in a nutshell, everything.

Tigmanshu Dhulia’s film is a call to the masses to return to the real India of the hinterland; the place where earthy, solid stories exist. Places where the women can unabashedly say, “Hume mard hi kyu milte hai... Shayar kyun nahi milte!” (Why do we get just men... why not poets!)

Four stars from me for Tigmanshu Dhulia’s masterpiece. Do NOT miss this one!

SpiceJet operates all-women flights on Women's Day

International Women's Day got off to a flying start on Friday with private carrier SpiceJet's first flights of the day being operated by all-women crew, an official here said.
The all-women operations included pilots, co-pilots, in-flight crew, staff at check-in counters, engineers and security, a company spokesperson said.
It began from around 5 am onwards with SpiceJet's Boeing B-737 fleet taking off from Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Bengaluru; its Bombardier Q-400 fleet of aircrafts took to the skies from New Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai.
Lending a personal touch to the celebrations, the airline staff gifted pink roses to women travellers on all the flights.
"We salute the spirit of womanhood. This is just a way of showing gratitude to all women who work with us and fly with us," SpiceJet CEO Neil Mills said.
The all-women flight operations included eight women captains and 27 co-pilots for the Boeing B-737 fleet and three captains and 10 co-pilots for the Bombardier Q-400 fleet.

UP policeman's murder: CBI team could ask for second post-mortem

A 10-member Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team will reach Pratapgarh in Uttar Pradesh at about noon today and could ask for a second autopsy on senior police officer Zia-ul-Haq, who was shot dead on Saturday evening in a village in Kunda, the Lok Sabha constituency of former state minister and local strongman, Raja Bhaiya.

The CBI officers will meet the chief medical officer of Pratapgarh to get details of the first post mortem report and if they are not satisfied, will ask for the second autopsy. The CBI was formally given the charge of investigating the case yesterday.

Mr Haq's wife, Parveen Azad, has said she is not fully satisfied with the first report. She also says that her husband was killed on the orders of Raja Bhaiya, whose real name is Raghuraj Pratap Singh and that she fears he could influence the investigation. She has demanded that he be arrested immediately.

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The former minister faces arrest after the investigating agency booked him and registered four different cases yesterday. The politician will be investigated for criminal conspiracy. He was forced to resign from office on Monday after he was accused in a police case of criminal conspiracy.

The first post-mortem report shared by the Uttar Pradesh police on Wednesday shared explicit details of how he was attacked - there were serious injuries on his head, several ribs were fractured and injuries proved he was dragged for several metres on the ground and was shot in the chest.

His revolver and the bullet that killed him are missing.

The investigating agency will today also question three police officers who have been suspended for abandoning Mr Haq in Ballipur village as he was being attacked by his murderers on Saturday evening. The role of eight policeman is being investigated in the case.

Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav told NDTV on Wednesday night that "whichever minister has been involved in wrongdoing, we will definitely order an enquiry." The assurance lacks credibility. Despite the enormity of the charges against him, the police has yet to question or arrest Raja Bhaiya.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Zia-ul-Haq was killed when he arrived in Pratapgarh to investigate the shooting of the village headman and his brother. An angry mob confronted the police man.

Narendra Modi manages to shift discourse to economic issues

In the game of verbal one-upmanship, Congress has been targeting Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, who at the moment is BJP's most popular leader. Modi too scored brownie points by targeting the 'Nehru-Gandhi dynasty' and praising 'non-dynasty' Congress leaders such as Lal Bahadur Shastri and President Pranab Mukherjee.

"He is certainly making efforts to rip into Congress through such targeted attacks," said sociologist Shiv Visvanathan. But that may not be enough for Modi to position himself strongly as a national leader, he added. Nonetheless, Modi seems to have managed senior Congress leaders to veer towards a face-off on economy and governance-related issues. Earlier, the barbs directed at Modi were about his alleged complicity in the 2002 Gujarat riots.

With Modi pitching himself as a 'governance evangelist' — and thanks to compliments from the likes of renowned economists Jagdish Bhagwati for his emphasis on growth — he is now being targeted over 'neutral economy turf '.

During his budget speech, finance minister P Chidambaram took a jibe at the Gujarat chief minister saying, "we have examples of states growing at a fast rate, but leaving behind women, the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, the minorities and some Backward Classes." He said that the UPA did not accept this model.

"The UPA government believes in inclusive development, with emphasis on improving human development indicators," he said.

Thanks to his PR machinery and fulsome praise from corporate leaders, including the Ambani brothers, Modi is acquiring a halo of being a no-nonsense administrator out to perform a shock therapy on a state that has always had low human development indicators.

Economists, too, have lauded his policies. Bhagwati went to the extent of co-authoring a book in praise of the Gujarat model of development. Titled 'India's Tryst with Destiny: Debunking Myths that Undermine Progress and Addressing New Challenges', the book dwells at length on the advances Gujarat has made over the years to put itself on the 'fast track of growth.'

Modi has fashioned himself as a doer and has attacked the finance minister, saying the budget was 'destined to "disappoint'. Much to Modi's comfort, the ruling coalition also retorted in equal terms, justifying its economic policies. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself stepped in to take on the BJP offensive.

Singh told Parliament, "Jo garajte hain, woh baraste nahin (Thunderous clouds do not bring showers)." Singh said even the Bimaru states had done much better during the UPA regime than the previous phase when BJP was in power.

He attributed the slowdown in economic growth to "a difficult global situation", apparently ignoring his claim a few years ago that the Indian economy was growing at 8% when the rest of the world was buffeted by a slowdown. Analysts say Modi seems to have played his cards well to confront his rivals over nonideology-related issues. His colleagues in the party too have been playing a good supporting role. In his reply to the President's address, BJP leader Arun Jaitley, too, focused on a 'neutral economic turf '.

"Someone whose name was until a few years ago associated with ideological rigidity, antiminority rhetoric and dark sarcasm, Modi seems to have achieved a makeover of sorts, with his emphatic win for the third consecutive time in Gujarat polls... But whether he will be able to sustain that is the question," said Visvanathan.

Tamils in Chinese soup

Apprehending that China may take an advantage of situation in its southern neighbourhood, the UPA government has sought a cautious approach to Tamil crises in Sri Lanka, even as it faced attacks both from the opposition and its allies in parliament on Thursday.
The evasive reply by the external affairs minister Salman Khurshid on the stand to be adopted on the resolution against Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Commission, triggered angry walk outs by the allyDMK,joined by AIADMK, and the entire NDA.
Sources in the government here told DNA that Sri Lanka has so far has kept a fine balance between two major neighbours China and India despite temptations. Therefore, an all-out tirade against Colombo as demanded by the Tamil parties would be detrimental to India’s long term strategic interests, say the sources.
Khurshid in Lok Sabha also mentioned using head rather heart, while taking decisions, which may have a potential to be thrown back to India in future. “We don’t want to play role of a policeman interfering in internal affairs of a sovereign nation,” he said, but maintained that Indian diplomacy has succeeded to convince Colombo to conduct provincial assembly elections in Tamil dominated northern Sri Lanka in September.
Amidst demands that the country take a strong stand on the resolution in UNHRC, Geneva, against the human rights violations in the island, he said India wants an "independent and acceptable" inquiry into the issue, assuring that that sentiments and concerns expressed by them during a debate on plight of ethnic Tamils, would be factored in the government's stand at the UN.
Government sources here say, while President Mahinder Rajapakse banking on Sinhala chauvinistic politicalbase may not be amenable to political devolution, but he is willing to improve physical condition of Tamils. “Our biggest concerns is Chinese inimical plans. President Rajapakse has respected red lines, valued India’s interests and so far there is nopermanent Chinese presence in the island,” they say.
In Lok Sabah, earlier parties across party lines called for devolution of powers to Tamils. The BJP asked for withdrawal of army from northern province, implementation of recommendation of lessons learnt and reconciliation committee, implementation of 13th amendment plus and an independent, impartial enquiry consisting of people from outside to probe charges of genocide.