Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim Helu has topped the Forbes magazine list of the world’s richest billionaires.

The list, released on Wednesday, valued Slim’s fortune at $53.5 billion, $500 million ahead of long-time list topper Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft. Legendary investor Warren Buffet was third with $47 billion.

Like most of the other billionaires, the top three saw their fortunes rise in 2009, a sign of the improvement of the world economy, said Forbes.

Overall, the 10 richest people had $342 billion, or $88 billion more than last year.

The number of billionaires also increased to 1,011. That’s much higher than the 793 super-rich who made in onto the list last year, but lower than the record number of 1,125 in 2008.

The world’s richest woman, according to Forbes, was Wal-Mart heiress Christy Walton, whose $22.5-billion fortune put her in twelfth place. Only 89 women made it in to the billionaires club, and most inherited their wealth. Of the 14 self-made female billionaires, seven came from China.

The 24th Forbes list included people from 55 countries, with first entries from Finland and Pakistan.

The US led the list with 403 billionaires. But China came second for the first time with 64 super-rich, followed by Russia with 62 billionaires. Of the world’s 97 new billionaires, 62 were from Asia.

Two Indians made it to the top 10 - oil magnate Mukesh Ambani in fourth with $29 billion and steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal in fifth with $28.7 billion. The other members of the top 10 were Oracle founder Larry Ellison, ($28 billion), fashion tycoon Bernard Arnault ($27.5 billion), Brazilian commodities king Eike Batista ($27 billion), Spanish clothing magnate Amancio Ortega ($25 billion) and German supermarket tycoon Karl Albrecht ($23.5 billion).

The city with the greatest billionaire density was New York with 60 super-rich, followed by Moscow (50) and London (32).

The Pakistan Cricket Board handed out life bans to top players Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf following an inquiry into the team’s disastrous tour of Australia.

The PCB also banned Shoaib Malik and Rana Naved for one year, along with a fine of Rs two million, for breaking the team’s ‘code of conduct’ during the tour of Australia.

Twenty20 captain Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal and Umar Akmal have been given final warnings on disciplinary grounds and are all on a six-month probation period. Kamran was handed a fine of Rs three million and younger brother Umar was fined Rs two million.

Afridi was fined Rs three million for ball tampering during the one-day series against Australia.

The PCB on Wednesday implemented the recommendations of an inquiry committee formed to evaluate Pakistan’s dismal performance against Australia in December and January. The committee was led by Wasim Bari.

The inquiry committee had recommended that Yousuf and Younis should no longer be part of the national team in any format because of their bad influence on the team and that Malik and Rana be banned for 12 months.

“Younis and Yousuf both cannot represent Pakistan in any international games, but they can play in domestic cricket and compete in county cricket,” PCB legal adviser Taffazul Rizvi told the Associated Press.

Both Yousuf and Younis were involved in infighting while on tour, which resulted in bringing down the whole team, the PCB said in a statement.

“Their attitude has a trickle down effect which is a bad influence for the whole team,” it said.

The punishments are set to impact the composition of Pakistan’s World Twenty20 championship. The team is the defending champion in this format and the 15-man squad for the event is due to be out by the end of this month.

According to reports, the national selection committee was taken aback by the recommendations by the inquiry committee with the team set to defend its World Twenty20 title in the West Indies.

The inquiry committee apparently had serious reservations over the attitude and commitment shown by Malik and Rana in Australia where they were accused of not cooperating with the management.

It is said the captain, coach and manager on the Australian tour had reported Malik and Rana for misbehaviour and not cooperating with the management a fact confirmed by some other players who appeared before the probe committee.

Former Pakistan test captain Ramiz Raja said the national team needed certain direction on discipline, but felt barring players from international competition was extreme.

“Our main problem was discipline, but barring players, I am not sure, it doesn’t look nice to just end the international careers of such talented players,” Raja told The AP.

“I think the PCB should have fined both Yousuf and Younis like they did to the others and set an example for other players, but banning them is a bit harsh to me.”

Another former Test captain Inzamam-ul-Haq questioned the formation of the committee and described the banning of Yousuf and Younis as the “totally wrong decision.”

“The committee comprised employees of the PCB and there was no neutral person in it,” Inzamam told Geo Television. “You cannot ban someone from playing international cricket on just disciplinary grounds.”

This is the first time in Pakistan cricket history that the Board has taken such strong disciplinary action against so many players at one time.

Computer networks at sensitive establishments have experienced a second wave of cyber attacks from foreign-based hackers. Sources in the intelligence reveal that fresh attacks began on January 28 and about 25 computers were targeted.

Computers used by individuals associated with the National Security Council (NSC) Secretariat and the National Security Advisory Board (NSAB) were the target of the new attacks, according to sources at the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO).

While NSC is the apex agency looking into the political, economic, energy and strategic security concerns, the NSAB consists of persons of eminence outside the government, with expertise in security matters, foreign affairs, armed forces, internal security, science and economics.

Earlier attacks were experienced on January 15, when hackers hit computers being used by top government functionaries. This included the Prime Minister’s Office, intelligence agencies and the armed forces. In fact, the Cabinet Secretary, who is also reported to be a victim of these attacks, had scheduled a hi-level meeting of security and cyber war experts this week to work out modalities to deal with such incidents.

Sources at NTRO, a relatively new highly specialised intelligence gathering agency concerned with satellite, terrestrial and internet monitoring as well as cyber warfare, have pegged the number of computers to have been hit in these attacks at 450.

Initial investigations revealed that 30 computers, including eight from the PMO, were compromised. This also involved two persons not on the regular posted strength of the PMO, prompting intelligence agencies to believe that the cyber attacks were backed by a high level of human intelligence, providing the whereabouts of key individuals and their portfolios and e-mail addresses. Others who came under attack from cyber space included chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, chief of the Naval Staff, deputy chief of Naval Staff, PM’s special envoy, the three military intelligence services and establishments of the BSF and CRPF in Jammu and Kashmir.

Monitoring the flow of information from these computers led to the identity of other computers that were compromised. Experts feel that the number could be more if the net was cast wider.

NTRO claims that the e-mail IPs of a couple of top mediapersons were also the target of these attacks. A MS-Word file titled National Security Document, containing a complex spyware was sent to the targeted addresses, which resulted in the computers being compromised once the document was downloaded. Earlier a malicious PDF file was also circulated. An e-mail address with a.nic.in suffix, said to be a dormant address hacked by the attackers, was reportedly used to send the mails.

Sources said that cyber experts at NTRO used “reverse hacking” methodology to trace the origins of the servers used in the malicious attacks. It is strongly believed that the servers were traced to mainland China, the exact physical location could not be established due to the complex nature of the attacks. “Our technical corroborations and results from other similar investigations reveal that the command and control architecture of these attacks have a Chinese signature,” a source claimed.

Under its Informationalisation Doctrine, China lays a huge emphasis on cyber war and it has a well set-up infrastructure for the same. Chinese believe cyber war to be the first element of surprise in a conventional war, to be used to cripple enemy civilian and military networks before going in for a physical offensive.

Some time ago NTRO had formed a rapid reaction team to deal with such exigencies and sources claim that their reaction time to the attacks was about an hour-and-a-half. NTRO is also known to have developed an offensive cyber warfare capability designed to penetrate computer networks and remote servers.

Team India’s fast bowler S Sreesanth, who had already been ruled out of tomorrow’s match, has tested positive for swine flu. The Kerala player had been admitted to Fortis hospital, Mohali, with cough, sore throat and fever. The speedster had undergone a series of tests, and the results came out late at night.

Punjab Cricket Association’s Hony secretary G S Walia told The Tribune, “The results for Sreesanth’s tests came in late tonight and he has tested positive for swine flu. He has been quarantined at the hospital.” He also said that there was no panic in the Indian camp and no other player had undergone a medical examination.

Sreesanth was admitted to the Hospital on December 10 at 11.30pm and he was seen by the hospital physician Dr Vikas Bhutani prior to admission. Since he had persistent symptoms of cough, fever and body ache, his throat swab was sent for H1N1 testing. He has been put on Tamiflu medications since then. He will remain admitted in the hospital for a day or two and all his vital signs are normal.

Chandigarh is India’s well constructed city. Its architecture is world class and unparalleled, and offers a good quality of living conditions. This place is a dream project of Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru and Le Corbusier. This is the very first planned city in India. It was rightfully named the “Beautiful City” because it is not just rich but also prosperous of spic and span and green nature. It definitely lives up to its branding. - Chad Mullens

The Chandigarh is also known as the Garden City of India. They have a wide collection of garden plants all well maintained. Cleanliness greatly adds beauty to the surroundings. The locals love to be in touch with nature and the cosmos and they manifest this by keeping their environment clean. The Chandigarh was even proclaimed the World’s Rock Garden and the Largest Rose Garden in Asia. Because of this, Chandigarh has always been in the list of favorite spots to visit around the world. - Chad Mullens

Rock Garden Chandigarh

This is the premier attraction in Chandigarh since 1958. It was created by Nek Chand Saini. This was formed out of the urban waste materials found in the city. These urban wastes include tin cans, bottles, plates, broken plugs and saucers. These materials were formed into beautiful textures and patterns. There were many materials were formed out of these wastes. The place has series of chamber but the first phase is a small canyon. The place has broken ceramics of human and animal form.

Chandigarh Botanical gardens

There were two botanical gardens in the place - Botanical Garden of Punjab University and another one between Rock Garden and Sukhna Lake. These botanical gardens are the main attractions of the place. The Punjab University Botanical garden is a place full of cacti and succulent plants. It has both evergreen and exotic plants. Lotus flowers are also abundant.

The Botanical garden between Rock Garden and Sukhna Lake has rare species of plants and pools of small lilies. This is a big garden with a total area of 88 acres. There is one botanical garden still to be developed up to now. It also grows trees that offer medicinal value and indigenous species of plants.

Chandigarh Bougainvillea Park

This is one garden where you can find all varieties of bougainvillea flowers. This was created in 1976. There are 65 varieties of bougainvillea in this place. This also has creepers that contain collection of arches, pavilions, bowers and arcades. This place has been famous because of the bougainvillea show held here annually.

Fitness Trail and Flower Garden

This is created mainly for physical fitness in 1965. Now it has been transformed to a very beautiful garden, with many gorgeous seasonal flowers to see. There are also wonderful sculptures adorned throughout the area that adds to the relaxing ambiance. This garden offers scenic beauty with the natural combination of physical exercise and beauty.

Garden of Fragrance

This is another garden that draws a big number of guests everyday. It offers plants with sweet fragrances and aroma. It houses varieties of jasmine, Haar Shingar, motia, Raat ki rani, demask roase, Champa and mehndi. This place has a nice picnic spot for you to enjoy. People can do work out in here because there are also tracks placed in the garden.

Chandigarh is definitely second home to nature lovers.

Source: Travel Chandigarh