Jijo Jacob

For the U.S., however, the Iraqi plan to buy billions of dollars of weapons will only be small consolation for the dismal turn of events in the last week. Muqtada al-Sadr, one of the fiercest anti-US warlords in Iraq whom the U.S. failed to annihilate, returned to Iraq after years and called for intensification of the war against Washington. That despite the hundreds of billions of dollars spent and thousands of lives lost defending an intangible moral high ground as if it were!

The extra fiscal stimulus in the form of tax cuts approved in December could produce a 4 percent growth rate for the U.S. economy in the first half of 2011, but there are lingering risks that could lead to a cold shower in 2012, according to the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).

Apple could lose its 'App Store' trademark if Microsoft has its sway. Microsoft has filed a lawsuit challenging Apple's use of its 'App Store' trademark, arguing that the term is too generic, PC World has reported.

German economy, Europe's biggest and the only bright spot in an otherwise bleak euro zone fiscal scene, grew at an impressive rate of 3.6 percent in 2010, official data showed.

Android phones and other mobile devices are more vulnerable to hackers than Apple iPhones due to Google's open-source policy in apps development, according to the chief of a security firm.

Brazil's Finance Minister Guido Mantega has accused the United States of engaging in currency manipulation, and said his country would raise this issue at the World Trade Organization (WTO), adding that the U.S. and Chinese policies are fomenting a trade war.

Statistics released by the People’s Bank of China on Tuesday showed the Chinese forex kitty is bursting at seams with an 18.6 percent growth in 2010 which made it zoom to a record $2.85 trillion.

China has carried out a test flight of its advanced laser-evading stealth fighter J-20, media reports have said, perfectly timing the event to coincide with the visit of U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates to the country.

As the European debt crisis worsens there appears to be more help coming from Asia, with Japan on Tuesday offering to buy Irish bonds coming up for sale this month.

The warring cults of Apple and Android could make Internet noisier now as data has shown that Google's Android-based smartphones have overtaken Apple iPhone during the quarter ending in November last year.

Socialbakers, which specialize in monitoring the Facebook platform, has revealed some interesting Facebook statistics. Perhaps the most surprising finding is that Japan, whose renown as a technology pioneer is unparalleled, is lagging way behind most countries in terms of Facebook penetration.

Jared Lee Loughner, who is held responsible for the killing of six people including a federal judge and critically wounding Gabrielle Giffords, Democratic Congresswoman from the state, is variously described as a right wing extremist, a mentally deranged killer, an anti-government fanatic, a white supremacist and as a die-hard leftist who adored Che Guevara.

Data showed on Monday the Chinese trade surplus narrowed in December, easing the conflict between Beijing and Washington over rising U.S. trade deficit even as Chinese President Hu Jintao is scheduled to meet President Obama in the White House on January 19.

Kevin Rose, founder of Digg and tech blogger, has written in his blog that the much-awaited iPad 2 could hit stores in two-to-three weeks, probably on the first day of the next month.

India's will overtake the U.S. in forty years in terms of GDP at purchasing power parities (PPP) while China will sail past its financial and political rival as early as 2018, a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) report said on Friday.

Florida's Tampa International airport closed its primary runway on Thursday after a shift in earth's northern magnetic pole made it impossible for planes to take accurate bearings. The event has ominously set in motion another round of doomsday talk as people shared anxiety on Internet discussion forums about the impending apocalypse in 2012 as predicted by the Mayan calendar.

Apple launched its much-awaited Mac App Store on Thursday, but reports have already surfaced that software pirates have been able to run through the security systems and install and run illegal apps.

There is euphoric expectation that China, armed with its $2.6 trillion reserves, will emerge as the ultimate white knight for Europe. Is that belief founded on facts and substantiated by strategic thinking?

Sony Ericsson intends to hang in by a thread and fight for its space in the high-end mobile handset segment. It announced on Thursday the launch of the flagship Xperia arc smart phone based on the Android platform, Wall Street Journal reported.

Kuwait and Iran, two of the world's largest crude exporters and prominent members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), have reiterated that they don't see the need to raise output to keep rising crude prices under check.

AT&T has raised the number of clients in the Greater China region by about 50 percent in 2010, Reuters reported on Thursday, quoting a senior executive of the company.

The UK service sector reported a drop in output in December, its first fall since April 2009, showing that the economy's growth had declined as the last year drew to a close.

Persisting political crisis in Pakistan, which got worse with the withdrawal of support to the government by two key allies and the assassination of a popular provincial governor, point to a serious governance failure and can further halt the strained IMF standby program aimed at restoring fiscal health, an analyst has said.

BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion (RIM) is launching a 4G version of its popular PlayBook tablet this summer with wireless carrier Sprint Nextel. RIM is decidedly focused on taking the intriguing tablet war to the tent of Apple CEO Steve Jobs who had lampooned the RIM tablet earlier, saying it will be dead on arrival.

Former Shell Oil CEO John Hofmeister's prediction a fortnight ago that retail gasoline prices would hit $5 per gallon by 2015 has gone viral since then, drawing attention largely on the U.S. drilling policies but also spooking consumers and polarizing analysts in the process.

John Lipsky, the first deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has said 2011 will be a pivotal year for the global economic recovery and for international policy cooperation, adding that it's also a crucial year for the Fund as it will try to address these principal challenges.

The governor of key Pakistani province of Punjab who opposed the controversial blasphemy law was assassinated on Tuesday.

The U.S. economy is on course to a self-sustaining recovery in 2011, aided by the private sector’s return to health and a further injection of fiscal stimulus, IHS Global Insight has said.

The California Supreme Court ruled on Monday that police can search cell phone text messages of an arrested person without any warrant, and asserted that those arrested have no privacy rights over any personal belongings on them when they are taken into custody.