Pak Telecom authority denies planning to snoop on all phone calls, e-mails, sms’

September 30th, 2009 NEW DELHI - India's telecom major Bharti Airtel and South Africa's MTN Wednesday terminated their talks for a proposed $24-billion equity swap-cum-strategic alliance that could have potentially created the world's third largest mobile phone enterprise. According to Bharti, the proposed deal was called off after the South African authorities declined to accept certain regulatory constraints on the part of both sides.

September 27th, 2009 MELBOURNE - Majority of Australians chose mobile phone over their landline connections as their main communication tool, a new survey has claimed. According to Australian Media and Communications Authority data, 70 per cent of 18-31-year-olds look at their hand set as the primary source of communication.

September 20th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Lollywood film star Meera has revealed the e-mails in which Attiqur Rehman has threatened her with dire consequences, in case she does not accept him as her husband. A private TV channel reported on Saturday that Meera showed the e-mails to reporters at Evernew Studios.

September 3rd, 2009 LONDON - The mobile phones of British princes William and Harry may have been hacked into by tabloid reporters, a senior British police officer said. Detective Chief Superintendent Philip Williams of the Metropolitan Police spoke of his suspicion at a hearing Wednesday of the British parliament's select committee on culture, media and sport.

September 1st, 2009 LONDON - A foul-mouthed caller in India threatened to bomb a British woman's house after she refused to buy his phones. The salesman also repeatedly swore at Clare Heeps, from Netherton, near Wishaw, Lanarkshire, calling her a "bitch", "common as s***e" because she was not interested in any of the mobiles he was trying to sell for the phone company '3' that has a major contact centre in Mumbai.

August 3rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - Bharti Airtel and South Africa's MTN Monday said they were extending their talks for a proposed $23-billion financial alliance till Aug 31, having failed to reach a pact within the earlier deadline that had expired Friday. "No decision or agreement to acquire any shares or implement the potential transaction outlined above has yet been made by the boards of either MTN or Bharti," the South African telecom company said in a statement.

August 1st, 2009 NEW DELHI - A Shanghai-based woman recently prepaid her cell phone bill worth a staggering 15,000 yuan by mistake. Considering that she never makes more than 20 yuan worth of calls from her phone each month, Zhang may not have to recharge her phone for about 63 years.

July 19th, 2009 ABU DHABI - India's Essar Group is exploring possibilities for investing in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based Dhabi Group's telecom business in Africa, the WAM news agency reported Sunday. Dhabi Group chairman Sheikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al-Nahyan and Essar Group chief executive Prashant Ruia signed an agreement here Sunday to start discussions in this regard.

June 15th, 2009 ROME - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has said that subversives are planning a palace coup of sorts to impose an un-elected leader on the country. Addressing a business lobby group, Berlusconi said: "There is a campaign of scandals against me.

June 13th, 2009 BEIJING - In the wake of Chinese mobile users complaining that they are getting up to 641 million junk texts a day, Chinese telecom regulators have intensified their crackdown on spam short messages. Country's three main mobile network operators, China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom have joined the regulators in their anti-spam fight by signing an agreement to deal with inter-network spam messages, the China Daily reports.

June 12th, 2009 LONDON - A new survey has revealed that the ongoing global economic slump has prompted IT staff to snoop on colleagues. The research conducted on IT workers by Cyber-Ark found that 35 percent of those questioned had access to confidential information, such as salaries and redundancy lists.

May 3rd, 2009 LONDON - Britain's spy chiefs are reportedly pressing ahead with secret plans to monitor all internet use and telephone calls in Britain despite Home Secretary Jackie Smith's announcement of a ministerial climb down over public surveillance. GCHQ, the government's eavesdropping centre, is developing classified technology to intercept and monitor all e-mails, website visits and social networking sessions in Britain.

May 2nd, 2009 WASHINGTON -The Obama administration is pushing for a new proposal which would give the US Central Command (CENTCOM) a wartime authority to deal with Pakistan. The new proposal, if accepted by the US Congress, would give the military commanders the same total authority that they enjoy in Iraq and Afghanistan's war zones.

April 25th, 2009 LONDON - The Gordon Brown Government has revealed that it plans to monitor every phone call, email or website visit. Plans for this exercise are to be unveiled next week, reports The Telegraph.

April 24th, 2009 LONDON - A Nepali telecom firm is set to be the first to offer mobile coverage at the top of Mount Everest. Nepal Telecom said that it would set up mobile towers in Thakdin, Manjo, Pheriche and Gorak Shep, to bring the summit within the network coverage.