Now, dinner with Oz PM for 20,000 dollars

September 6th, 2009 LONDON - Former US Republican Vice President candidate Sarah Palin is taking part in a charity event to help support wounded war veterans. According to reports, the charity event includes an auction and the highest bidder will get an opportunity to have dinner with her.

March 12th, 2009 NEW YORK - Forbes magazine study has revealed that Microsoft Corporation co-founder Bill Gates has reclaimed the title of the richest man in the world, with a total net worth of 40 billion dollars. According to Fox News, the magazine found 793 billionaires in 2009, which was down by 30 percent from a year earlier.

October 9th, 2009 MELBOURNE - eBay Australia has revealed that a cereal that looked like ET is the weirdest item ever sold on its website - fetching more than a thousand dollars. The online auction website has hosted strange auctions, but a thousand-dollar piece of Nutri-Grain resembling ET was dubbed as a favourite after it sold for a whopping 1035 dollars in December 2004.

September 15th, 2009 MELBOURNE - The Government of Victoria's decision to give a grant to Indian software giant Satyam Computers now Mahindra Satyam despite failing a federal government litmus test for funding is shrouded in mystery. The grant by Victoria controversially enabled the original firm to embark on the 75 million dollar Geelong IT project.

October 5th, 2009 Bid on eBay for a Denver hotel for New Year's EveDENVER — The Curtis Hotel in Denver is putting itself up for auction on eBay for New Year's Eve. The winning bidder gets 330 rooms, the grand ballroom, live music, champagne, caviar, dinner, breakfast and of course all the staff to pull off a once-in-a-lifetime party.

August 19th, 2009 WASHINGTON - An unemployed Arkansas woman, who was thwarted every time she tried to sell the naming rights to her seventh child on eBay, is hoping that her fifth attempt will bring her success. Lavonne Drummond, 36, revealed that her fourth bidding hit 26,100 dollars before eBay removed it on August 17, which was considerably more than the 15,000 dollars she lost when eBay shut down her first auction because the company ruled the mother of six was soliciting donations.

June 3rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - The ministry of external affairs is all a-Twitter. Not because Indian diplomats have become net savvy, but one of the new ministers of state is a frequent user of this social networking web tool.

January 15th, 2009 WELLINGTON - Nearly 650 New Zealanders snapped up super cheap airfares as low as 50 New Zealand dollars (about $27) for flights to Europe in September after a data input error on the website of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, a report said Friday. The watchdog dog Commerce Commission rebuked the airline for taking more than four hours to correct the mistake and said it should have better systems in place.

July 25th, 2009 NEW DELHI - President Pratibha Patil on Saturday presented the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development to Microsoft founder Bill Gates for his charity work. Gates received the prize on behalf of his 38 billion dollars Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

April 21st, 2009 Tech Mahindra Limited, which is taking over Satyamomputer Services Limited in a deal worth about 580 million dollars, has said that it would run the fraud-hit outsourcing firm as a standalone unit. Tech Mahindra said its immediate priority was to retain and win back lost clients of Satyam and the company intended to meet key customers across the world.

March 29th, 2009 WELLINGTON - New Zealand's government welfare agency has confirmed it examines internet social network sites like Facebook to catch benefit fraudsters, a newspaper reported Sunday. Lauren Kaney, 22, of Mount Maunganui, was convicted in court last week of getting three times the weekly benefit she was entitled to, after claiming she lived on her own with her 2-year-old-son.

March 16th, 2009 NEW DELHI - India's leading offshore IT and software development company, the HCL on Monday announced that it has bagged a seven year 350 million dollars IT services outsourcing contract from media and marketing house 'Readers Digest Association' (RDA). According to a HCL statement, under the deal, the IT giant would re-build and migrate RDA's mainframe environment to its New Jersey data centre facility.

September 2nd, 2009 MELBOURNE - Qantas has praised outsourcing partner Mahindra Satyam's performance despite the latter being embroiled in a much-publicised billion-dollar accounting scandal. According to Australian IT, Qantas corporate services and technology executive manager David Hall said despite the fraud saga, Satyam continues to service the Flying Kangaroo.

January 13th, 2009 SAN FRANCISCO - Global purchases of information technology goods and services may decline by three percent in 2009, ending seven years of growth, US research firm Forrester said in its latest report on global IT market outlook It said global IT purchases by businesses and governments will fall to $1.66 trillion. The decline is a distinct shift from 2008, when global IT purchases increased by eight percent.

September 11th, 2009 MELBOURNE - Mahindra Satyam has pulled out of a 75 million dollars software development project at Deakin University that was set to create 2000 jobs in Geelong, Victoria. The company's president of corporate affairs, Sujit Baksi, informed the state government of its intention in a letter to IT minister John Lenders.