US downgrades India’s air safety ranking, brings it below Pakistan

US Federal Aviation Administration downgraded India after conducting an audit last year of the country's aviation regulator that found 31 issues of safety concern. PHOTO: REUTERS/FILE

NEW DELHI: US aviation authorities have downgraded India’s safety ranking in a “disappointing” and “surprising” move, below that of Pakistan, with fears that it will hit air links between the countries, India’s aviation minister said Friday.

The US Federal Aviation Administration downgraded India after conducting an audit last year of the country’s aviation regulator that found 31 issues of safety concern, a ministry statement said.

The issues include the need for more and better trained full-time inspectors employed by the regulator tasked with carrying out safety checks on all types of aircraft and helicopters in India, it said.

“They have downgraded us to category 2. It is very disappointing and also surprising,” Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said at a press conference in New Delhi.

The FAA has “determined that India at this time is not in compliance with the international standards for aviation safety oversight,” according to FAA notes given to Indian regulator the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

The rating downgrade brings India below Pakistan and on a par with countries like Bangladesh, Ghana and Indonesia, according to FAA.

The downgrading effectively bars Air India and Jet Airways from increasing flights to the US, and additional safety checks will now be imposed on existing flights to the United States, the FAA’s website shows.

Currently, Air India has 21 flights to the US per week while Jet Airway flies seven.

Indian airlines will also have to snap ties with US airlines, according to the website, but DGCA chief Prabhat Kumar said the downgrade would not affect the code-share agreement.

Jet has a code-share agreement with United Airlines currently, while Air India is joining Star Alliance.

Singh said 95 per cent of issues raised by the FAA have been resolved, while the remainder were expected to be resolved by March, adding it was the first time India had suffered a downgrade.

“They (FAA) should have based their decision on the situation now,” said Singh, adding that the FAA’s downgrade was based on air safety in September.

The downgrade is the latest controversy between the US and India, which are attempting to put diplomatic relations back on track after outrage in December over the arrest and strip search of an Indian envoy in New York.

The envoy, Devyani Khobragade, was arrested on charges of visa fraud involving her domestic servant and lying about how much she paid her. Khobragande denied any wrongdoing and eventually returned to India after a deal was struck between the two nations to mend their relations.

In a bid to head off the downgrade, the government announced two days ago that 75 new positions would be created in the DGCA to carry out safety inspections.

“This is an important step that will aid in India regaining its former Category 1 status in the future,” the FAA said in its notes to the DCGA and released by the minister.

“The United States Government commends the Indian government for taking these important actions and looks forward to continued progress by Indian authorities,” the FAA said.

India’s aviation sector has grown enormously in the last decade, as the 1.2-billion population becomes more affluent, boosting the number of international and domestic passengers.

But the sector has been hit in the past by safety scandals, including over fake pilots flying with fake qualifications in 2001.

Police made several arrests over the scandal involving cases of pilots exaggerating their flying time while training and other irregularities.

In one such case, a captain who made several bad landings was found to have submitted faked paperwork to gain her licence.

Experts said they expected the downgrade as the aviation regulator had failed to address earlier FAA warnings in a given period of time.

“The decision of the FAA to downgrade is both embarrassing and disgraceful … but one could see it coming,” former Air India executive director Jitendra Bhargava told AFP. “The DGCA should take this as a wake up call.”

Microsoft ready to name Satya Nadella new CEO, report says

After months of searching, Microsoft's board is said to be close to naming Steve Ballmer's replacement. Bill Gates also may be out as chairman.

Is Microsoft's long search for a new CEO about to end? A Bloomberg report says that the company's board is preparing to name Satya Nadella as Microsoft's next CEO. It also says the board may decide to replace Bill Gates as chairman.

If Nadella, now in charge of cloud computing, is about to become only the third CEO in Microsoft's 38-year history, the company will put in charge the sort of brainy technologist who is closer to the Gates mold than the hard-charging salesman that is Steve Ballmer. Nadella is in charge of the organization responsible for building Microsoft's Cloud OS, which powers Office 365, Bing, SkyDrive, Xbox Live, Skype, Dynamics, and enterprises around the world.

The report, quoting "people briefed on the process," said that John Thompson, Microsoft's lead independent director, is being considered as a possible chairman to replace Gates.

CNET reported on Wednesday rumblings that a decision could come down sometime within the next couple of weeks. But the search to find Microsoft's next boss has become the tech equivalent of "Waiting for Gadot." Nadella has figured in rumors as a possible candidate for several months. Earlier Thursday, CNET reported that he was about to get he nod, citing Recode's Kara Swisher. What's new this time around is the scenario in which Thompson would step into the role of chairman and Gates would officially sever his official connections with the company he founded with Paul Allen.

Insiders and executive recruiters say that the appointment of a new CEO could involve the departure of both Gates and Ballmer. They say a new CEO might be uncomfortable taking steps that reversed decisions carried out under the Gates-Ballmer regime if the duo still sat on the board.

Nadella's previous stints over the last couple of decades were as president of the Server and Tools business, senior vice president of R&D for the online services, and vice president of the Microsoft Business division

Mark Zuckerberg Says Facebook Will Compete Directly Against Google As A Search Engine

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Business Insider/Julie Bort

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg and Google CEO Larry Page

If you want to know where Facebook thinks its business is going in the future, just read what CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Wall Street analysts yesterday on his Q4 2013 earnings call. Facebook will take on Google directly for dominance of search, he said. Zuckerberg pointed out three facts about the company that have gotten little attention in the media so far:

• Facebook has a bigger "index" of data on hand than any other search engine.
• Facebook's artificial intelligence unit is working to make that data available through Graph Search, Facebook's search engine.
• The final product will be rolled out on mobile devices so that people can ask Facebook for advice and solve their problems using voice recognition on their phones.

The caveat here is that this effort will take 10 years, he said.

This vision emerged when Zuckerberg was asked about Graph Search, which is somewhat clumsy to use and has received lukewarm reviews. The different between Graph Search on Facebook and Google search is that Google will return concrete results for discreet keywords, whereas Graph Search is intended to help you find answers to questions where the answer isn't fixed or clear, such as, "What are my friends' favorite restaurants?"

Here's what Zuckerberg actually said:

So the first release [of Graph Search] indexed more than a trillion connections between all the people and interests and events and groups and things that everyone was connected to. The second release that we did recently was around all the updates. So there are more than a trillion status updates and unstructured text posts and photos and pieces of content that people have shared over the past 10 years, and indexing that was a really big deal, because as the number of people on the team who have worked on web search engines in the past have told me, a trillion pieces of content is more than the index in any web search engine.

That last phrase — "more than the index in any web search engine" seemed deliberate. It obviously implies that Zuckerberg thinks he has a database on hand that is bigger than Google's. And he didn't say "search engine," he said "web search engine." A cynic might interpret that as meaning he believes Google search is somewhat confined to internet browsing whereas Facebook's in-app experience might provide something more personal that is separate to, or in challenge with, the overall web.

(There's a debate to be had about how Zuckerberg is defining "index," and Google — which indexes every page available on the entire web — probably believes its index is larger.)

But that is the scale of Facebook's ambition, to be "more" than "any web search engine." It's not clear that people get just how important this is to Facebook. (Business Insider first wrote about the plan in October last year, but few paid attention.)

It's a huge vision. But given that Zuckerberg has gathered 1.2 billion users onto a single platform and is single-handedly funding the development of the internet itself in the developing world, it fits within the scale that Zuckerberg thinks at.

Doubtless Google has its own A.I units and its own grand plans for search. But until recently, Microsoft's Bing and Yahoo's search engine had taken only small slices of Google's business. What Zuckerberg seems to be saying is that in 10 years time, Facebook will be capable of providing a research and question-and-answer service that will be better than "any" other search engine.

Here's some more detail on what Zuckerberg said:

The way that we’re thinking about this, there’s just so much content that people have shared on Facebook that simply building the infrastructure to index all of it and start ranking it is a multiyear effort, which we’re making our way through.

... And I can speak to some of the deep learning work. In the last quarter, Yann Lecun, one of the really earliest folks, and one of the founders of deep learning, and a professor at NYU, joined us to lead our AI group. And this is a long term research group that we have. It’s going to fit into our strategy over a longer, maybe five or ten year, period.

And their goal is really just to try to understand how everything on Facebook is connected, by understanding what the posts that people write mean, and the content that is in the photos and videos that people are sharing, help people with tasks like if you’re sharing a voice clip in messenger, being able to transcribe that for people, so that they can receive it more easily.

So these are some pretty big tasks in AI that are things that we have teams that are working on that will need to be researched over time, and will have obvious implications for the products that we do, but over time the real value will be if we can understand the meaning of all the content that people are sharing, that we can just provide much more relevant experiences for people across everything that we do.

Internally, we talk about our strategy, and there’s a three-year strategy, a five-year strategy, and a 10-year strategy. And the three-year plan is really all about building new kinds of experiences for sharing, like so many of the questions on this call have been about. The five-year approach is really mostly about helping people use their network to answer interesting questions or solve problems that they have.

And that’s where all the Graph Search work and the open graph work and some of the early parts of the AI work that we’re doing you’re going to start to see over that period of time

All smiles as Sharif, Zardari lay Thar Power Project foundation stone

Former president Asif Zardari, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Sindh CM Qaim Ali Shah unveil the 660MW coal power generation project at Thar. PHOTO: APP

KARACHI: The inauguration of the Thar Coal Power Project brought the rare joint appearance of former president Asif Ali Zardari and his successor, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

The two erstwhile rivals were amicable, however, as they laid together the foundation stone for the $1.6 billion project in Mirpurkhas, Sindh.

Both leaders drew attention to the cross-party cooperation that led to the inauguration of the project.

“The concept came about five years ago,” Zardari said in his speech, “and the Pakistani leadership has matured to the extent that projects like this can be executed.”

Sharif echoed Zardari’s sentiments in his address.

“Politics has its place. We all act according to our mandates, and Mr Zardari has passed on his mandate with an open heart,” he said.

“People should recognise that politics in Pakistan is done differently now. This project isn’t Sindh’s project; it is Pakistan’s project. This isn’t Zardari’s or Nawaz Sharif’s project; it is Pakistan’s project.”

Sharif moved on to directly address Pakistan’s power crisis. “The project,” said Sharif, dressed in a traditional Sindhi hat and shawl, “is one of many that will take Pakistan out of its acute electricity shortage.”

He then went on to list various projects, including three dams, wind power at Jhimpir, 10 projects at Gadani that he hopes will take Pakistan out of its current power troubles.

The Thar Coal Power Project is estimated to produce 660MW of electricity, according to Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, who was also present at the inauguration. It is expected to be completed by 2017.

Of the $1.6 billion in costs, the project is based on 75:25 debt to equity ratio. Engro Power, one of the stakeholders of the project, envisages raising $900 million from Chinese banks, $300 million from a Pakistani banking consortium and the remaining $400 million from sponsors

Ranveer Singh to replace Shah Rukh in Aditya Chopra’s next?

According to Indian media reports Bollywood director Aditya Chopra, for the first time, may not rope in his favourite actor Shah Rukh Khan in his next directorial venture.

Chopra, who is handling his family banner Yash Raj Productions, is reportedly in favour to cast Ranveer Singh in the lead for the project.

So far Chopra has directed three films – ‘Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi’ ‘Mohabbatein’ and ‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’ and in all of them SRK has played the lead role.

On the other hand, Khan will be seen sharing screen space with ‘Raanjhanaa’ actress Sonam Kapoor for the first time in Rahul Dholakia’s ‘Raees’.

The film, which will be produced by Excel Entertainment, will also feature Farhan Akhtar. It is expected to release on Eid next year.

Salman Khan, Elli Avram to share screen space?

According to India Today Bollywood superstar Salman Khan and Swedish Greek actress Elli Avram may appear together on the big screen.

Though no details about the film have been disclosed, reports reveal the ‘Jai Ho’ actor has told his company that Avram will share screen space with him in a film.

India Today quoted a source saying, "Elli is being approached by other filmmakers and Salman has put in a word for her as well. Now it has emerged that Elli will do a film with Salman."

Avram, who was catapulted to fame after appearing as a contestant in ‘Bigg Boss 7’, made her Bollywood debut in 2013 with the film 'Mickey Virus'.

Johnny Depp spent $100,000 on Amber Heard’s engagement ring?

According to American media reports Hollywood actor Johnny Depp is believed to have splurged around $100,000 on an engagement ring for girlfriend Amber Heard.

Speaking to EOnline.com Jewelry expert Zaven Ghanimian said, "if we assume it's a white oval diamond in the five carat range, the price would be between $78,000 to $100,000."

The two began dating in 2012 after Depp announced his separation from his former love Vanessa Paradis.

They sparked engagement rumours after the ‘Rum Diary’ actress sported her engagement ring, for the first time, at a private charity event in Anaheim, California on Sunday.

Paradis, who has two children- Lily Rose and Jack with Depp, has also moved on to another relationship with French singer Benjamin Biolay.

White House weighs petition to deport Justin Bieber

WASHINGTON: As if Barack Obama didn't have enough problems to deal with already, his administration now is being asked to weigh in on the grave matter of Justin Bieber's bad behavior.

By midday Wednesday (1700 GMT), a petition on the White House website calling for the deportation of the Canadian-born teen idol had garnered 103,000 names -- easily surpassing the threshold of 100,000 signatures required for presidential consideration.

"We the people of the United States feel that we are being wrongly represented in the world of pop culture," says the petition, created by one "J.A." in Detroit on January 23, the day Bieber was busted in Miami Beach for impaired driving and illegal drag racing in a flashy Italian sports car.

"We would like to see the dangerous, reckless, destructive and drug-abusing Justin Bieber deported and his green card revoked. He is not only threatening the safety of our people but he is also a terrible influence on our nation's youth. We the people would like to remove Justin Bieber from our society."

The White House website hosts citizens' petitions on other, more heady issues such as the legalization of marijuana and a pardon for National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.

"Every petition that crosses the threshold will be reviewed by the appropriate staff and receive a response," assistant White House spokesman Matt Lehrich said.

But State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki cautioned that the petition program "doesn't always determine a step will be taken, it's more of another opportunity for the voices of the American people to be heard."

There was no comment from Bieber himself, who according to gossip websites was back in Los Angeles on Wednesday after a weekend beach break in Panama.

Bieber, 19, is understood to be living and working in the United States under a renewable O-1 visa for entertainers, rather than a green card for permanent resident status.

It remains unclear whether Bieber's visa to stay in the United States would be affected by his arrest.

Now out on bail, Bieber is due back in Miami for a court appearance on Valentine's Day, when he will also also face charges of resisting arrest and using an expired driver's license.

Police in Los Angeles are pursuing their own investigation into an earlier incident in which Bieber allegedly hurled eggs at a neighbor's house.

Affleck responds to backlash over Batman casting

In an interview with Playboy, Hollywood star Ben Affleck said he would not have agreed to play Batman in ‘Man of Steel 2’ if he thought the role wasn’t perfect for him.

Speaking to Playboy, Affleck said, “I understand I'm at a disadvantage with the internet. If I thought the result would be another Daredevil, I'd be out there picketing myself. [laughs] Why would I make the movie if I didn't think it was going to be good and that I could be good in it?”

The ‘Argo’ star, who faced major online backlash over his casting as batman, will portray ”older and wiser” version of the caped crusader in ‘Batman vs Superman’.

The 41-year-old actor said he was initially reluctant to take on the highly-coveted role but changed his mind after seeing what director Zack Synder was doing.

"When they asked if I would be Batman, I told them I didn't see myself in the role and I was going to have to beg off. They said I'd fit well into how they were going to approach the character and asked me to look at what the writer-director, Zack Snyder, was doing. The stuff was incredible,” Affleck told the magazine.

“It was a unique take on Batman that was still consistent with the mythology. It made me excited. All of a sudden I had a reading of the character. When people see it, it will make more sense than it does now or even than it did to me initially.”

When asked about how his character will be different from Christian Bale and Chris Nolan’s version, he said, “i don't want to give away too much, but the idea for the new Batman is to redefine him in a way that doesn't compete with the Bale and Chris Nolan Batman but still exists within the Batman canon. It will be an older and wiser version, particularly as he relates to Henry Cavill's Superman character”.

The highly-anticipated, film will also feature Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, while Henry Cavill will reprise his role as Superman. The film is expected to release in May, 2016.

Victoria Beckham: Proud to see women wearing my clothes

Singer-turned-fashion designer Victoria Beckham claims the best feeling is when she sees women on streets following her fashion label.

According to the Daily Mirror, Victoria was quoted as saying, “the proudest moments as a designer are seeing women in the street wearing my clothes, it makes it real!"

The former spice girls said it was her dream to become a fashion designer.

"I have loved design since I was kid. It's incredibly fulfilling to have a career pursuing a lifelong passion," Victoria was quoted as saying.

Victoria, who is married to former footballer David Beckham, said she had to work hard to make a name in the industry from scratch.

"Coming from a completely different industry is what I found the hardest," she said.

"I was a Spice Girl married to a footballer, I was trying to do something that no-one had really done before."

Victoria, who has sons Brooklyn, Romeo, Cruz and Harper with David, is gearing up to open her first standalone store in her native London this fall.

Leonardo DiCaprio’s brother arrested; niece missing

According to Radar Online Leonardo DiCaprio’s brother, Adam Farrar, has been arrested in Texas on warrants issued by the Los Angeles authorities.

Adam was charged with possession of a dangerous drug, theft, and harassment by phone.

The arrest was made when Ferrar attempted to visit his girlfriend Charity Moore, who was arrested earlier in separate drug-related incidents, at the Collin County Sheriff’s Office.

Moreover, couple’s daughter, Normadie Farrar, has been missing since the arrest. Family members as well as friends are reportedly searching for DiCaprio six-year-old niece.

One family friend told Radar: “Adam and Charity have been hiding with Normadie in Texas, desperately avoiding the Department of Justice.”

“It’s now very worrying. With both of them locked up in jail, no-one in the DiCaprio family is sure where Normadie is, at this time. They didn’t even know that Adam and Charity had been arrested.”

It is said that the ‘Titanic’ star was inspired by Adam, who starred in American TV show ‘Battlestar Galactica’, to pursue his career in acting.

But in recent year the two reportedly have not been on good terms and have avoided meeting each other.

Aishwarya to team up with Nagarjuna in comeback film

According to Deccan Chronicle Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is set to make a comeback on the big screen in a forthcoming Mani Ratnam’s film.

A source from Ratnam’s teams told Deccan Chronicle “Aishwarya Rai has confirmed her participation in the project.”

The film, which will be a Tamil-Telugu bilingual, will also feature Tollywood stars Nagarjuna Akkineni and Mahesh Babu in the leads.

Deccan Chronicle quoted a representative of Aishwarya as saying, “she has been in talks with Mani Ratnam but the details of the film are still not known. But she has given her consent. I also know that the makers are planning to start shooting sometime around September-October.”

The 40-year-old actress, who was last seen in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s 'Guzaarish,' will team up with Ratnam for the fourth time following ‘Iruvar’, ‘Guru’ and ‘Raavan’. Meanwhile Nagarjuna will work for the second time with the director after their super hit film ‘Geethanjali’.

Vodafone, Liberty line up to buy Spanish cable group: sources

LONDON: Vodafone and Liberty Global are competing to buy Spain's largest cable operator, Ono, from its private equity owners, two people familiar with the situation said on Tuesday.

Ono had been planning an initial public offering this year in a bid to capitalise on a wave of investor interest in the increasingly successful cable sector, sources told Reuters earlier.

Liberty Global, owned by billionaire John Malone, has been on a spending spree to increase the size of its empire in Europe, where it derives more than 90 percent of its revenue.

It bought Britain's Virgin Media for $15.8 billion last year, and just on Monday agreed to pay 10 billion euros ($13.7 billion) for Dutch cable operator Ziggo after months of negotiations.

Spain is one of the few European countries, along with France, where Liberty is not already present. Vodafone, for its part, has been acquiring broadband assets to allow it to offer bundled services to consumers and offload traffic from its mobile networks.

The two companies fought to buy Germany's Kabel Deutschland last year, with Liberty forcing Vodafone to raise its offer to 7.7 billion euros.

Liberty's deal to buy Ziggo was struck at an enterprise value to 2013 core profit (EBITDA) multiple of 11.3 times, compared with a median of 9.4 times for its peers, according to Reuters data.

Liberty paid about 8 times forward EBITDA for Virgin Media. Investment funds Providence Equity Partners, Thomas H. Lee Partners, CCMP Capital Advisors, and Quadrangle Capital own 54 percent of Ono, according to the company's website.

The funds are holding ongoing talks with Vodafone and Liberty, one person familiar with the situation said.

Ono had core earnings of 752 million euros for 2012, which at the median multiple of 9.4 times would give an enterprise value of 7.1 billion euros.

One banking source, however, said Vodafone or Liberty would have to come in with a bid at a multiple of 10-12 times if it wanted to win over the IPO plan.

Analysts believe a price war is the main reason behind the upcoming market consolidation in Spain, with smaller players Ono, Jazztel and Yoigo, owned by Teliasonera in the spotlight.

The Spanish telecoms market has become increasingly competitive in recent years, with Telefonica last year launching a quadruple-play offer, which bundles fixed and mobile phone contracts with internet and TV services and is sold at a cheaper price than each service individually.

The move forced other operators, such as Vodafone, to slash prices and overhaul its offer in Spain.

The British company has already struck a deal with Orange to offer broadband services in major cities. A Spanish banker active in the telecom sector said it would make sense for Vodafone to buy Ono.

However, it would create a big headache for Jazztel, which has also launched quad play services. Its shares have risen about 70 percent over the last 12 months, making it comparatively more expensive than Ono.

"If the deal ends up being done, Jazztel will lose its ideal lover," he said. "The only other candidate (to buy out Jazztel) would be Orange, but it's not ideal." Ono, Vodafone, and Liberty declined to comment.

Yahoo takes hit, revenue drop overshadows profit rise

SAN FRANCISCO: Yahoo reported on Tuesday that its quarterly profit jumped at the end of last year, but revenues sank in a troubling sign for the struggling Internet pioneer.

The California firm reported profit up 28 percent to $348 million in the fourth quarter on revenue that slid six percent to $1.27 billion from the same period a year earlier.

Yahoo shares dropped to $36.87 in after-market trades, despite chief executive Marissa Mayer's insistence that the company is on the right path.

"I'm encouraged by Yahoo's performance in the fourth quarter and 2013 overall," she said.

"We are extremely heartened by the year-over-year traffic increase we experienced in 2013, an early sign of return on our investments and the acquisitions we've made."

Yahoo took in $70 million selling some of its patents and saw healthy returns on its investment in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.

"Most of their money seems to be still coming in from China, which is outside Mayer's control," said independent analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group in Silicon Valley.

A former Google executive, Mayer has been striving to revitalize the once-leading online search engine vanquished by the company she left behind.

Investors were troubled by a six percent drop during the fourth quarter in display ad revenue that has long been at the core of Yahoo's income.

Display ad revenue in the quarter was $491 million compared to $520 million taken in during the final three months of the previous year, according to the earnings release.

For the full year 2013, Yahoo posted a profit of $1.4 billion, which was down from 2012 when the company took in big sums from sales of its stake in China's Alibaba.

But revenue for the full year dropped six percent to $4.68 billion.

Jon Ogg at 24/7 Wall Street said that while the drop in revenues is a concern, Yahoo is also subject to profit-taking after a huge rally over the past year and concerns about how far Mayer can take it forward.

"Many may criticize the lack of revenue growth seen so far. That may be an issue, but the reality is that this stock is up huge and investors seem to have decided to take money off the table here for now," Ogg said.

Leading social network Facebook last year bumped Yahoo from its spot as the number two digital ad seller in the United States for the first time, according to industry tracker eMarketer.

Yahoo's share of worldwide digital ad revenue ebbed to 2.87 percent last year from 3.37 percent in 2012, eMarketer reported.

But Yahoo continues to hold a crown it claimed in August of last year after edging past Google in a comScore ranking of online properties most frequently visited from desktop computers in the United States.

Figures from the industry tracker last week showed that Yahoo websites logged just shy of 195.2 million unique visitors in December, while second-place Google saw about 192.3 million.

During an earnings call with analysts, Mayers said that focus on improving Yahoo's workforce, products, and user traffic last year should translate into company growth in 2014.

Analysts pressed Mayer on her decision to axe Yahoo chief operating officer Henrique de Castro about two weeks ago.

"Ultimately, Henrique was not a fit," Mayer said of getting rid of the second-in-command she had hand-picked 15 months earlier.

"That was a very regretable conclusion, but it was the right decision in the end."

Mayer said that, instead of replacing de Castro, she is more hands-on with the Yahoo sales team and with media talent hired as part of the company's move into being an online venue for original and curated content such as digital magazines.

As part of her mission to revive the company, Mayer has made a slew of acquisitions, including blogging platform Tumblr. She has also revamped Yahoo pages and its free email service.

Many of Yahoo's buys were talent acquisitions, and the pace was not expected to slow, according to the company's chief financial officer.

Mayer took over as Yahoo chief in July 2012, and her plan to revitalize the company includes being at the center of people's Internet habits, especially on mobile devices.

"She certainly has it down how to increase her own visibility," Enderle said.

"But as far as actually demonstrating she can generate revenue, there is nothing in the financials that say she is getting there. It is all a wish and a prayer."

Renault-Nissan alliance sells record 8.3mn vehicles in 2013

TOKYO: The alliance between Nissan and Renault sold a record 8.3 million vehicles last year, giving it fourth spot among global automakers, new data showed Wednesday, as the pair reportedly boost ties to cut costs.

Nissan said it sold 5.1 million units globally in 2013, a 3.3 percent rise from a year ago, while the French automaker earlier reported that it sold 2.63 million vehicles in 2013.

The group sold a total of 8.3 million vehicles last year, including sales by Russian affiliate AvtoVAZ, putting it behind top three automakers Toyota, General Motors and Germany's Volkswagen.

Last week, Toyota said it sold a record 9.98 million vehicles in 2013, its highest-ever annual sales volume, thanks to a weaker yen as well as strong demand in the United States and China, which is now the world's biggest car market.

The Camry sedan and Prius hybrid maker beat US-based GM, which sold 9.71 million cars last year, while Volkswagen logged annual sales of 9.5 million units.

The figures come after Japan's Nikkei business daily reported that Nissan and Renault plan to boost their alliance by bringing together production as well as research and development in a bid to save about $3.8 billion annually.

Despite their close links -- Renault is the Japanese automaker's biggest shareholder and they are both chaired by Carlos Ghosn -- the pair have operated largely independently of each other, except on parts procurement and engine development.

India’s Bharti Airtel profit doubles, first rise in 4 years

NEW DELHI: India's top mobile phone firm Bharti Airtel reported Wednesday its quarterly profit leapt by 115 percent, the first rise in four years, boosted by surging data use and easing of cut-throat price wars.

Bharti, the fourth-largest telecom firm globally, said net profit for the third financial quarter to December climbed to 6.1 billion rupees ($98 million) from 2.84 billion rupees in the same period a year earlier.

The company's focus on Internet operations "has increased adoption and usage" of Bharti, said Indian chief executive Gopal Vittal.

"Data is now a huge source of revenue," Vittal added.

Data services have become the new battleground for Indian telecom companies as they seek to boost revenues in an increasingly saturated domestic mobile market.

Bharti, controlled by billionaire founder-chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal, had clocked 15 straight quarters of profit decline before Wednesday's rise.

Despite the better performance, the figures still undershot market expectations of a 10-billion rupee profit for the three-month period.

Shares were up just 0.13 percent at 306.55 rupees in early afternoon trade.

But analysts said the quarter was positive overall.

"Competitive intensity is declining in India thanks to (the) fruits of consolidation and the data numbers give quite a bit to be excited about," telecom analyst Harit Shah at Mumbai's Nirmal Securities told AFP.

The Indian firm, with 287 million customers and operations in both Africa and Asia, said Internet revenues soared 105 percent year-on-year to 17.36 billion rupees.

Total revenues climbed 13.3 percent in the third quarter to 219.4 billion rupees from 193.6 billion rupees a year ago.

Average revenue per user, a key industry profitability benchmark, jumped five percent in India.

Bharti operates in 20 countries and is nearly one-third held by Singapore's SingTel.

India's telecom sector was a market star before fierce tariff competition pushed call rates down to among the world's lowest.

But the number of major telecoms players has fallen, with just three firms -- Bharti, Vodafone and Reliance -- accounting for nearly three-quarters of revenues. A 2012 Supreme Court ruling scrapped the licences of various smaller firms over a scandal-tainted spectrum sale.

The easing of market congestion has allowed companies to start hiking calling rates. While there is still a price battle for data customers, that has been more than offset by the volume of new customers, analysts say.

But the industry faces a new deep-pocketed rival, Reliance Jio Infocomm belonging to Reliance Industries, controlled by India's richest tycoon Mukesh Ambani.

Bharti must bid to purchase new spectrum in an auction of mobile airwaves starting February 3 to keep providing services in several areas where it already operates.

Aggressive bidding by Reliance Industries could boost prices at the auction, at which the cash-strapped government is hoping to raise at least $1.8 billion, analysts say.

Reliance's planned entry could force Bharti and other telecom players to invest more on capital expenditure to improve service and may even trigger a new tariff price war, analysts say.

Bharti's Africa operations, which it purchased for $10.6 billion in 2010 to expand its global footprint, meanwhile, continue to face headwinds.

The Africa division has yet to declare a profit and it added 36 percent fewer customers during the third quarter from a year earlier, the earnings statement showed.