Quotation corner

"To me, the greatest challenge for India is the lack of a stable government, which can take a bold decision on its own, without depending on supporting political parties. India had lost this consistency on administration ever since it failed to form a government under a common flag. Seriously, if we look into the progress India had achieved since it freed from the command of Britain, it could have been a world leader in all aspects, but our political system jeopardized the growth in every phase."

Ramachandran Nair, Muscat

Pirate Bay trial ends, verdict due in April

Today marked the final day in the trial against The Pirate Bay, with lawyers for both the prosecution and defense delivering their closing arguments before a final verdict is given. The four men behind the site are accused of promoting copyright infringement and profiting from ad revenue, which, if upheld by the court, could cost them a year behind bars plus up to $180,000 in fines.

The defense however repeatedly argued that The Pirate Bay itself hosted no copyrighted files, but is rather a search engine and repository for users? uploads. They also argued that the very Internet infrastructure was at issue in the case, with all sorts of sites and services that are completely legal ? such as Google ? link to at least some infringing content. In fact, you can even use Google to search for torrent files.

While this is certainly true, prosecutors maintain that unlike the aforementioned services, nearly all of The Pirate Bay?s popular downloads are in fact illegal and thus the defense?s arguments are not valid ? oddly enough they offered no details on the ratio of legal to illegal content on the site. The court announced a verdict would be due on 17 April. Meanwhile, the defense seems pretty confident on a positive outcome saying a guilty verdict would ?be a huge mistake for the future of the Internet.?

Want to know what's inside Tendulkar's kit bag?

Ever wondered what Sachin Tendulkar carries in his cricket kit bag?

The devout Sachin has a selection of images of Lord Ganesh on the inside lid of his bag.

Then comes the kit itself: multiple pairs of shoes, batting gloves, and bats of varying weight. Another smaller bag contains jerseys and other articles of clothing.

Tendulkar has a fetish for tidiness -- he has a place for everything, and everything needs to be in place. It is no surprise therefore that his kit bag is one of the neatest you will ever come across in international cricket.

And then there is one final element -- Tendulkar's mostt prized possession: a little piece of art glued to the inside lid of his 'coffin'.

It is a hand drawn image of the Indian national flag, inscribed with the words "All The Best. From Mama, Sara, Arjun".

That tells you all you ever need to know, about Tendulkar the player, and the man.