Travel And Leisure Books Your Guide Way To The World Of Fun And ...

Have you ever considered a trip as an option in your list of presents that you plan to give your loved one? Most people often overlook the possibility of considering atrip because of the great expenses. However, with emergence of travel and leisure books you are rest assured of a lifetime experience that is worth remembering. In the recent past, very many people have come up with their written works be it in magazines, journals, newspapers and off coursetravel and leisure books. Similarly, there has also been a steadfast increase in the number of websites offering free guidance on the best areas in the world to spend your vacation.

Among the most popular travel and leisure books is the New York Times great and bestseller by Patricia Schultz. It gives a clear guideline on the one thousand places that you ought to see before your life on this world ends. This is surely more than a travelers list, but it is ideal even for students. Other than the various short descriptions and authors opinions, this book contains clear pictures that show each and every place that is described. Some of the very wonderful places that are shown in this book include the Ice hotel of Sweden, Californias wine country, Na Pali Cliffs of Hawaii, The La Sagrada Familia found in Spain, and Africas great Ngorongoro Crater. This book is just one of a kind among alltravel and leisure books. It goes further to look at some other sites in Asia, New Zealand, Australia, South and Northern America, Europe and Africa, among others.

The Travel and Leisure magazine is another publication of the travel and leisure books. Once you subscribe to this magazine, you get to know a lot of things thanks to the various columnists who write aboutvacation guides, hotel reviews, travel articles, vacation hotels and resorts

Once you get your help from travel and leisure books, you have to proceed with your plans. The next thing that you cannot afford to forget is to visit a discount store or a craft and source the besttravel pamper basket. Inside the basket, do not forget to include a jasmine or lavender pillow spray which will keep the bed of your loved one smelling good all night long. Secondly, buy her some bubble bath to soak herself after the very long day of adventure and site seeing. The third asset especially if your friend happens to be girl is peppermint foot lotion to keep the tired feet cool. Similarly, although many hotels and vacation resorts do provide enough shampoo, they do not offer adequate conditioners. Therefore, buy her some good hair conditioner that will maintain her hair all time long.

Other things that travel and leisure books propose include; a neck pillow, toothpaste and toothbrush, a sleep mask, and obviously her favorite candy. Do not ignore any advice that you get fromtravel and leisure books especially if it concerns the size and quality of the things to buy.

Travel and leisure books also offer similar advice when it comes to a guy. The most important thing is that you do not overload the suitcase of your guy just because men are known to be strong. For a guy, you should swap the bubble bath and pillow spray with aftershave.

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Source: http://thegowforums.com/travel-and-leisure-books-your-guide-way-to-the-world-of-fun-and-leisure

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5 killed, 11 wounded in Thailand's violent South (AP)

PATTANI, Thailand ? Police say suspected militants have killed five people and wounded 11 in three overnight attacks in Thailand's insurgency-plagued south.

Pol. Col. Chaiwat Nittayawimon says one soldier and one paramilitary ranger were killed overnight Wednesday when about 10 suspected militants attacked their operations base in Songkhla province. Another ranger was wounded. Police did not say if the attackers stole any weapons.

Attacks in Songkhla province are rare.

In two other attacks late Wednesday and early Thursday in other southern provinces suspected insurgents killed three, including a 4-year-old girl, and wounded 10.

More than 4,700 people have been killed in Thailand's Muslim-dominated southern provinces since an Islamist insurgency flared in 2004.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110825/ap_on_re_as/as_thailand_southern_violence

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how to make a video conference | Computers and Technology News

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EyeBuyDirect.com Urges Consumers: ?Think Twice Before Purchasing ...

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EyeBuyDirect.com Urges Consumers: ?Think Twice Before Purchasing Vision Insurance?

New York, NY (Vocus/PRWEB) December 20, 2010

With unemployment rising at an alarming rate and a slow and long road back to economic recovery, consumers around the world are faced with tighter wallets, increased levels of stress and very few healthcare alternatives. But, what’s the alternative? For EyeBuyDirect.com, the leading Internet retailer for prescription eyeglasses, the answer is simple: Think Twice Before Purchasing Vision Insurance.

“For so many out-of-work Americans, the harsh reality of losing their health and vision insurance can be terrifying and daunting,” says Roy Hessel, CEO and Founder of EyeBuyDirect.com. “At EyeBuyDirect.com, we strongly believe that a financial bump in the road shouldn’t prevent you from seeing your future clearly.”

Hessel adds, “We understand all too well that the value of a dollar isn’t what it used to be, and urge you to be wary of the one-size-fits-all approach to eye care. If health insurance is no longer an option or you anticipate more comprehensive vision treatments and procedures for eye diseases like cataract and glaucoma in your future, think twice before purchasing vision insurance.”

Vision Insurance Is Useless Without Health Insurance

Vision insurance can be helpful so as long as you can afford to pay your regular health insurance premium. But if you’re out of a job, have depleted your unemployment benefits, and can’t afford regular health insurance, EyeBuyDirect.com helps you see clearly with stylish, reliable and affordable eyeglasses.

Prescription Eyeglasses Purchased Through Vision Insurance Fall Short on Savings

Buying prescription eyeglasses through your vision insurance provider or optometrist can cost more than $ 200, putting unnecessary strain on your wallet. At EyeBuyDirect.com, top-notch prescription eyeglasses can be purchased online in a matter of seconds for as little as $ 7.95, without sacrificing style and quality.

See Clearly Past the Red Tape and Paperwork of Vision Insurance Providers

Get the best value for your buck online at EyeBuyDirect.com without worrying about co-payments, long delays at the optometrist’s office, and insurance approvals.

Vision Insurance Misses the Mark on Social Networking and Interactivity

Whether you’re a teenager who needs eyeglasses to get your driver’s license, a stay-at-home mom who can’t see the latest Martha Stewart recipe without your prescription eyeglasses, or a senior citizen with glaucoma, EyeBuyDirect.com creates a personal, customized experience for its social network of more than 20,000 members. Online shoppers can hit the online dressing rooms on the site’s EyeTry feature, share feedback with fellow shoppers around the world, and even upload their photos to their Facebook pages.

Dedicated to bringing corrective vision to communities worldwide, EyeBuyDirect.com strongly encourages its customers to get regular health and eye exams, as well as updating their eyeglasses prescriptions once every 2 years.

About EyeBuyDirect.com

EyeBuyDirect.com is the leading online retailer for prescription eyeglasses committed to bringing optimal vision to customers around the world without sacrificing quality, style and, most importantly, affordable prices. Launched in 2005, EyeBuyDirect.com believes that vision care is a fundamental right for everyone. Offering an assortment of eyeglasses that run the gamut from functional and sturdy to fashion-forward and lightweight, EyeBuyDirect.com has something for everyone including designer deals from Gucci and Christian Dior. For more information, please visit us at http://www.EyeBuyDirect.com.

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Vocus, PRWeb, and Publicity Wire are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vocus, Inc. or Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.

Tags: Before, Consumers, EyeBuyDirect.com, Insurance, Purchasing, Think, Twice, Urges, Vision

Source: http://www.fakeraybayssunglasses.com/eyebuydirect-com-urges-consumers-think-twice-before-purchasing-vision-insurance/

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The Problems with Patent Reform

Patent reform is about to negotiate the final hurdle standing between it and President Obama?s desk, where it would almost certainly be signed into law. The hurdle is a Senate cloture vote scheduled for September 6. The patent reform bill ? which these days goes by the friendly name of the ?Leahy-Smith America Invents Act? ? has already passed the House; clearing the Senate cloture vote pretty much guarantees passage and enactment.

Listening to the White House and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, passage is both inevitable and will work economic wonders for all Americans: the bill will ?boost patent quality, reduce the backlog of patent applications, and cut costs for American companies? by ?provid[ing] greater certainty and consistency for innovators? rights,? reducing legal costs on small businesses, and helping innovators commercialize their inventions, ultimately ?cut[ting] the red tape that . . . holds our whole economy back?. Indeed, as soon as Congress sends the bill to the President, it will be ?easier for entrepreneurs to patent a new product or idea ?- because we can?t give innovators in other countries a big leg up when it comes to opening new businesses and creating new jobs.?

You may recall that similar legislation has been proposed for at least the last six years; however, 2011 is the first year that patent reform will allegedly ?boost the economy? or ?create jobs.? What in the 2011 legislation is newly geared at invention commercialization and economic growth through patent reform?

Nothing, as it turns out. Instead, as several non-politician commentators have pointed out, many provisions newly stuffed into the current bill are certain to have a negative impact on patent examination backlog while failing to address other real problems with the patent system, suggesting that those praising the bill are either not paying attention to its contents or are simply desperate to pass anything branded under ?job growth? or ?reform? in a legislative system that is largely perceived as dysfunctional.

This opinion piece takes a closer look at three problems ? stripping of USPTO funding, unique anti-patent treatment for the financial sector, and prior user rights that undermine technological disclosure and promote trade secret culture ? with the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act now before the Senate and opposes its enactment. An examination of the substance of the bills and the legislative process that created it shows no red tape will be cut by, and few inventions sped to market by, the reforms born more out of partisan point scoring and special interest catering than any interest in reducing patent backlog and increasing patent quality and job creation.

First up is the most tragic provision of the America Invents Act ? Section 22, which limits how much the USPTO can use its own fees. That is, Section 22 permits Congress to take the money the USPTO earns from providing services to applicants and divert the funds to non-USPTO projects. The practice, termed ?fee-diversion,? has been ongoing and resulted in cuts to USPTO services, as the USPTO Director himself has stated, including limiting new Examiner hiring and acquisition of new IT infrastructure that would help combat the growing patent backlog.

The Senate originally passed their version of a patent reform bill (S.23) in March 2011 by a 95-5 bipartisan vote. S.23 guaranteed the USPTO could keep and plan around all the user fees it collects, thanks in large part to the efforts of Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK). The House, however, in an effort spearheaded by Reps. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Hal Rogers (R-KY), reversed this benefit. The House version currently awaiting Senate approval includes a new Section 22, which permits Congress to take excess USPTO funding from a special fund and spend it elsewhere. While Representative Rogers stated that excess USPTO funds will be spent only on the USPTO, the actual language of Section 22, in addition to the pressure from the new debt-ceiling committee to squeeze all excess revenues into the general treasury, does not give the USPTO any certainty as to what funding will be available in coming fiscal years. Additionally, the fee diversion of Section 22 undermines any fee-setting authority given to the USPTO; the USPTO cannot set fees to recover USPTO expenses if those fees are appropriated by Congressional third-parties to cover other government expenses. (It?s worth noting that the House also added a sunset provision to the USPTO fee-setting authority, so it will go away in seven years anyway.)

So all the exhortations that the patent reform bill will speed inventions to market by reducing the patent backlog are almost certainly false, at least to the degree that such backlog might be addressed with additional USPTO funding. Without being able to hire additional Examiners or make long-term decisions based on long-term funding, the Office will have few tools to improve patent quality and reduce the nearly 700,000 application backlog (it currently takes the Office over 2 years to act on an application filed today). As a frequent user and customer, I find that USPTO operations are already in a precarious state. Continuing fee diversion, under Section 22 of the current House bill, will only worsen this situation by preventing the USPTO from making long-term plans or funding initiatives to meet the demands of American innovation like reducing the examination backlog.

Next up, provisions doling out benefits to the special interest of the day: banks. Sections 14 and 18 of the America Invents Act establish special anti-patent treatment of inventions on tax strategies and pure business/financial services methods. In a special-interest coup for the bank lobby, Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) added provisions to the bill that invalidate entire swaths of tax strategy patents and provide a unique procedure to tie up patents asserted against their business models in new USPTO post-grant review. The only reason these narrow areas of innovation are undeserving of patent protection is because established financial service entities don?t want to pay licensing fees or damages due to patents their businesses infringe. The financial servicers would rather use the patented tax strategy, check-processing method, stock-transfer mechanism, or what-have-you without the person who came up with the strategy/method/mechanism getting any cut of the profits or potentially entering the market and upsetting established market shares with disruptive innovation. Of course, financial services innovation will quickly disappear altogether when the patent system cannot protect or reward it, which is likely exactly what the lobbying financial servicers want.

As former Federal Circuit Judge Paul Michel and IP commentator Hal Wegner have noted (and received criticism from the banking lobby for so noting), given the mechanisms and (lack of) reasoning for Congress?s special treatment of the financial service industry, it?s unclear why US lawmakers, or even foreign lawmaking bodies, will not identify and exclude other industries from patent protection on disruptive innovation, so long as those industries lobby Congress hard enough. Maybe China will decide that pharmaceutical methods are not a patent-worthy industry, and this just happens to result in all US-invented drug treatments having no patent rights in their country? Indeed, the fact that only financial services patents were given the axe in the America Invents Act, despite long-standing outcry against software patenting in this country, suggests that the anti-software patent voices just need to start playing donation hardball with influential senators to get software patents similarly invalidated or caught up in endless review before the USPTO.

Particularly worse is the combination of post-grant reviews (plural ? as in multiple administrative procedures) of Sections 18 and 6 of the patent reform bill, which increase the complexity of post-issue procedures before the USPTO to a mega-bureaucratic and almost byzantine level. Professor John Duffy makes this point better than I ever could. It?s probably even worse than Professor Duffy admits, because the post-grant review procedures are not clearly delineated in their application ? they simply permit post-grant review for ?non-technological inventions,? as decided by the USPTO Director. So what is a ?technological financial? product or service? Checks with anti-counterfeit technology in them? Stock trading methods that rely on computerized trading technology? Methods of hedging risks in an e-commerce commodity market? Only the current USPTO director knows! As a patent attorney, I can?t help but admire Sections 6 and 18 for the increased work and revenue they will generate in the near term for my profession. But keep in mind, this is a bill that is supposed to ?cut the red tape? and ease USPTO examination burdens. I can?t see how the creation of several new overlapping procedures for the USPTO to deal with an ambiguous class of patents it has already issued will help streamline USPTO operations. Maybe in the long-term, Sections 6 and 18 will reduce USPTO burdens, as innovators come to realize the price of dealing with these many post-grant proceedings and stop filing patents and disclosing their innovations?

Lastly, Section 5 of the America Invents Act creates a blanket defense to patent infringement for prior, secret users of a patented invention. Basically, so long as a party secretly uses an invention ?commercially? (even one use will apparently do), they are protected from ever infringing a third party?s later patent on that invention. That is, the party that uses and keeps as many trade secrets as possible can be assured individual benefit from the trade secrets without any risk of infringement if a third party manages to later replicate and patent (and thus disclose) their trade secret. This is horribly detrimental to an underlying policy goal of the patent system ? disclosure of scientific breakthroughs and technological advances. Under Section 5, an innovator has no motivation to come forward with any inventive process, because they have a patent infringement defense if a third party later patents such a process. Under current law, anyone maintaining a trade secret indefinitely runs the risk of infringing a third party?s later patent on that secret. Section 5 eliminates this risk; a manufacturer that believes they can maintain trade secrets indefinitely, such as in the case of a highly-specialized field, in extremely advanced breakthroughs, or when no competitors are seeking patent protection, faces no risk under the current patent reform bill. The result will inevitably be greater universal trade secret activity, with fewer advanced manufacturing and fabrication processes being disclosed for patent protection, entire industries potentially falling into guild-like secretive societies, and entry costs into highly advanced technology sectors greatly increasing.

Worse, (and I apologize that this paragraph is getting very ?inside baseball?) Sections 2 and 5 of the reform bill, together, potentially reverse Metalizing Engineering. The Metalizing doctrine prevents a party who commercially benefits from their trade secret from later patenting that trade secret, while allowing third parties to independently invent and patent (and thus disclose) the trade secret. Section 2, with its generic use of the term ?disclosure,? may permit the trade secret user to later patent that trade secret (despite Senator Leahy?s thinking to the contrary), while defeating any third-party ability to ensnare the trade-secret keeper in infringement. The net result of patent reform will inevitably be greater trade secret use and less public disclosure of technological advances; it is just a question of to what lengths and risks industries will go to effectively keep trade secrets. I can?t begin to guess how this is going to spur innovation and boost our economy.

To be sure, the America Invents Act includes many neutral or good things for the patent system. The legislation removes the idiosyncratic ?best mode? requirement from the patent statute, removes restrictions on Federal Circuit judge?s residency, eases signature problems with non-cooperative inventors, supercedes the Supreme Court case of Holmes Group v. Vornado, permits USPTO fee-setting, addresses false-marking lawsuit abuse (and potential unconstitutionality), liberalizes third-party submission of information relevant to the examination process, and harmonizes US patent law with the rest of the world by switching the US from a ?first-to-invent? to a ?first-to-file? jurisdiction (albeit partially and ambiguously).

Sometimes one must take the bitter with the sweet in getting legislation passed. But the above acrid ingredients ? stripping of USPTO funding, special anti-patent treatment for the financial sector, and prior user rights that undermine technological disclosure ? overwhelm the patent reform cake with bitterness, leaving maybe a single sweet cherry on top. I urge all interested practitioners to oppose the America Invents Act currently awaiting a cloture vote in the Senate by contacting your Senator, signing the petition at reformaia.org, and contacting your advocacy groups like IPO and AIPLA.

In the meantime, here are some other perspectives on the problems with the America Invents Act. [Foreign Policy Blog] [The Hill] [Innovation Alliance] [shellypalmer] [Lauder Partners] [No on HR1249] [Inventive Step] [IP Nuggets] [Trading Technologies]

Tagged as: patent policy, patent reform, Policy, USPTO

Source: http://alleylegal.com/2011/08/the-problems-with-patent-reform/

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Bail raised to $3M for NJ man in wife's killing

An injured Kashif Parvaiz, originally from Brooklyn, N.Y., sits in a wheelchair during a court appearance in Morristown, N.J., Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2011, in the fatal shooting of his wife in Boonton, N.J., last week. Parvaiz and Antoinette Stephen of Billerica, Mass., are charged with murdering Parvaiz's wife, Pakistani-born Nazish Noorani. Bail for Parvaiz was increased bail to $3 million. Bail for Stephen remains at $5 million. Noorani was fatally shot Aug. 16 while she and Parvaiz pushed their son's stroller near Noorani's family home in Boonton. Parvaiz was also shot. The child was unharmed. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

An injured Kashif Parvaiz, originally from Brooklyn, N.Y., sits in a wheelchair during a court appearance in Morristown, N.J., Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2011, in the fatal shooting of his wife in Boonton, N.J., last week. Parvaiz and Antoinette Stephen of Billerica, Mass., are charged with murdering Parvaiz's wife, Pakistani-born Nazish Noorani. Bail for Parvaiz was increased bail to $3 million. Bail for Stephen remains at $5 million. Noorani was fatally shot Aug. 16 while she and Parvaiz pushed their son's stroller near Noorani's family home in Boonton. Parvaiz was also shot. The child was unharmed. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

Deputy Public Defender Dolores Maan, left, and attorney Mitchell J. Ansell sit in court as Antoinette Stephen of Billerica, Mass., stands during her appearance in Morristown, N.J., Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2011, in the fatal shooting of a woman in Boonton, N.J., last week. Stephen and Kashif Parvaiz, originally from Brooklyn, N.Y., are charged with murdering Parvaiz's wife, Pakistani-born Nazish Noorani. Noorani was fatally shot Aug. 16 while she and Parvaiz pushed their son's stroller near Noorani's family home. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

An injured Kashif Parvaiz, originally from Brooklyn, N.Y., sits in a wheelchair during a court appearance in Morristown, N.J., Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2011, in the fatal shooting of his wife in Boonton, N.J., last week. Parvaiz and Antoinette Stephen of Billerica, Mass., are charged with murdering Parvaiz's wife, Pakistani-born Nazish Noorani. Bail for Parvaiz was increased bail to $3 million. Bail for Stephen remains at $5 million. Noorani was fatally shot Aug. 16 while she and Parvaiz pushed their son's stroller near Noorani's family home in Boonton. Parvaiz was also shot. The child was unharmed. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

Antoinette Stephen of Billerica, Mass., enters court during her appearance Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2011, in the fatal shooting of a woman in a New Jersey suburb last week. Stephen and Kashif Parvaiz, originally from Brooklyn, N.Y., are charged with murdering Parvaiz's wife, Pakistani-born Nazish Noorani. Noorani was fatally shot Aug. 16 while she and Parvaiz pushed their son's stroller near Noorani's family home in Boonton. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

MORRISTOWN, N.J. (AP) ? Prosecutors successfully pushed for higher bail Tuesday for a man accused of plotting with a woman to murder his wife, saying the pair were a significant flight risk who had spoken of "pulling a Houdini" to escape authorities.

Kashif Parvaiz, originally from Brooklyn, N.Y., appeared in state superior court in Morristown, N.J., where his bail was increased from $1 million to $3 million cash.

His alleged co-conspirator, Antoinette Stephen of Billerica, Mass., appeared separately in the same courtroom, and her bail remained at $5 million cash.

Stephen and Parvaiz, both 26, face charges of murder, conspiracy and weapons offenses in the shooting death of Parvaiz's wife, Nazish Noorani.

The 27-year-old Noorani, originally from Karachi, Pakistan, was fatally shot Aug. 16 while she and Parvaiz pushed their son's stroller near Noorani's family home in Boonton, a New Jersey suburb about 30 miles from Manhattan that is home to a large Pakistani-American population.

Prosecutors have not said whether Stephen and Parvaiz were romantically involved or revealed who fired the shots that killed Noorani, but they have said Stephen was at the scene of the shooting. Investigators wrote in the arrest affidavit that Parvaiz and Noorani had a turbulent relationship. Authorities said Parvaiz met Stephen in Brooklyn and the two discussed killing Noorani.

Relatives and friends said the husband's name is spelled Pervaiz, but several online records and court documents show the similar spelling Parvaiz.

Parvaiz was also shot and suffered non-life-threatening wounds in the attack. He was brought into court Tuesday in a wheelchair with one arm in a sling, bowing his head as bail was discussed. One woman seated in the courtroom with members of his family covered her mouth when she saw him and held back sobs.

Parvaiz did not speak at the hearing, but prosecutors said he initially told police he and his family had been attacked by a group of men who called them terrorists. The child was unharmed.

Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi asked the judge to set Parvaiz's bail even higher, at $5 million cash, arguing the investigation had revealed that Parvaiz and Stephen had multiple sources of money, several addresses and extensive connections, making them a flight risk.

"The twisted tale that these two engaged in is more egregious and narcissistic than anything I've seen in my career," Bianchi said.

Bianchi said Stephen and Parvaiz exchanged text messages shortly before Noorani's killing in which they spoke of the "Houdini act" they were about to engage in to evade authorities.

Parvaiz' attorney, Mitchell Ansell, said his client vigorously denied the charges, and planned to plead not guilty. He said many erroneous stories had been told about his client.

"My client did not kill his wife," Ansell said. "We ask that you please withhold judgment of my client until all the facts are known in this case."

Attorney Dolores Mann, a court-appointed public defender for Stephen, said she had been assigned the case only moments before the Tuesday appearance, and was not in a position to comment until she'd had a chance to meet with her client. Stephen was arrested in Massachusetts and extradited to New Jersey on Monday.

In arguing for higher bail, Bianchi said Parvaiz had told several lies, including that he graduated from Columbia University and was studying for a degree at Harvard University. Neither school had records of his attendance.

Bianchi also cited an investigation into Parvaiz's alleged involvement with a real estate transaction in Queens in which he stood to gain more than $2.5 million after an elderly man sold him a stake in the deal for $10.

A story first reported in The New York Post alleged that Parvaiz befriended 74-year-old Martin Ragusa, a wealthy Manhattan heir he had reportedly met as a teenager doing construction work on Ragusa's Manhattan apartment.

The two reportedly grew close over the years, and Ragusa recently sold his stake in a Queens apartment building to Parvaiz for $10. Several published reports say a contract to sell the property for $9 million was recently signed, and Parvaiz stood to gain more than $2.5 million from his share of the sale.

Parvaiz's attorney declined to discuss the allegations.

Neither defendant spoke during their appearances; both are due back in court Friday.

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Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-08-23-Couple%20Shot/id-46935e84874244d0b256b28bd653360d

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Indian corruption hits all aspects of life (AP)

NEW DELHI ? When her husband died suddenly of a heart attack, Rukmani Devi and her oldest son went to the local government offices so the state pension checks ? her only source of income ? could be shifted to her name.

The clerk in the pension office knew Devi's husband, a retired food inspector living in the northern city of Lucknow. He listened compassionately as she told of her grief and her need for the money, which would total about $240 a month. He gave her some paperwork, and told her to come back.

But when she returned, everything had changed. She and her son, Ravi Sharma, were told to wait. So they sat on a wooden bench in the packed waiting room, where temperatures neared 100 degrees. When the clerk went to lunch, he told them to come back the next day. But the same thing happened again. And again. It went on for weeks.

Finally, another office worker suggested Ravi meet the clerk privately. So he took him to lunch, and politely asked about the delays.

"How can the file move?" the clerk demanded. "You have not put silver wheels underneath it."

The cost: 6,000 rupees, or about $130. Three days later, everything was done, and Devi was getting her check.

Today, Sharma says he had been confused by the clerk's initial friendliness, or he would have offered the bribe far earlier.

"I know this is how things are with many government officials," Sharma said, himself a paramedic in the health department who was supposed to get a raise in 2007 that never came through. He paid a bribe to receive his retroactive pay, but still hasn't received the raise because officials are now asking for an even bigger bribe, he said.

"Corruption is part of life now," he said. "The booty is shared from the clerk to the senior officer, so no one is complaining."

It's how things work in India.

People pay bribes to get their children's birth certificates, and bribes to get their parents' death certificates. They bribe police officers, tax inspectors and principals doling out positions in nursery schools. On higher levels, politicians bribe to gain political alliances and industrialists to get land or government licenses. A bribe to a small-town police officer might be just 20 rupees (45 cents). For powerful politicians, the money is often handed over in suitcases, and counted in millions of dollars.

But if such corruption has become an everyday part of Indian society, a series of scandals ? and the public reaction to them ? hint that society might have had enough.

Still, eliminating corruption in India is a complicated endeavor. It has become highly politicized, it is viewed differently among the various social classes and nearly everyone is complicit in petty bribery ? either on the giving or receiving end.

A string of high-profile corruption cases over the past year have nearly paralyzed the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. In a country where 800 million or so live on less than $2 a day, the numbers are staggering: up to $4 billion lost during last year's Commonwealth Games; a cell phone licensing scandal that cost the government up to $36 billion in lost revenue.

Then came Anna Hazare, a retired army driver turned social activist who has turned public anger over corruption into a national phenomenon, demanding the creation of an anti-corruption watchdog.

When the government agreed to create the watchdog but stopped short of all his demands, Hazare ? who compares himself to the pacifist independence hero Mohandas K. Gandhi and says he is leading a new battle for freedom ? went on a hunger strike.

Now on the 9th day of his water-only fast, surrounded by his followers in a New Delhi park and under the constant watch of TV news cameras, the 74-year-old has vowed not to eat until his version of the watchdog is adopted. He also claims divine guidance.

"This is a new revolution," he told his followers a few days ago, adding that God had "placed me here in front of you."

Thousands of people, many waving the Indian flag and wearing white Gandhian caps emblazoned "I am Anna," have gathered at Hazare's protest park. Children in elegant party dresses, their cheeks painted with the three stripes of the national flag, walked hand-in-hand with their parents, near groups of boisterous, and intimidating, young men.

But while Hazare's campaign has been warmly welcomed by India's urban middle class and its riotous news channels, corruption is seldom a simple topic in India.

It's hard to find people who won't ? if pressed hard enough ? admit having been part of that corruption in some way, whether it's in evading taxes (less than 3 percent of India's 1.2 billion people are registered taxpayers) or in paying bribes to get out of a legitimate traffic ticket.

"Bribery has become a compulsion ... We have no choice but to pay to get every little thing from the government," said Madhurima Verma, a homemaker.

And if the TV news stations breathlessly insist Hazare's campaign has become a national crusade with "unprecedented crowds," the reality is muddier. Certainly Hazare has plenty of support, but his protest has peaked at tens of thousands of people during a long holiday weekend. While that's no small number, it is about the same size as a recent food inflation protest and far from revolutionary.

And it has drawn little strength from the poor and bottom caste dalits who bear the brunt of the corruption that lets local officials steal their subsidized food rations and demand bribes for allowing them to pedal bicycle rickshaws for pennies through India's cities.

In fact, some of them have bristled at the protests as an affront to the constitution and to its author, a dalit lawyer named B.R. Ambedkar, who is revered among the untouchable community as a hero even greater than Gandhi.

Self-righteousness among the middle class, some say, is running amok.

"We cannot help dreaming of the barricades. "They call to us, the comfortable middle class." the writer Mihir Sharma said recently in the Indian Express newspaper. Like other critics of Hazare's struggle, he derides the public fasts as political manipulation, and says the proposed watchdog would undermine elected politicians.

"What a pity" he wrote "that the moment we seem to think will spark a new, politicized middle class is this one, in the service of a useless, misguided bill, and coalescing around a man whose ideas are regressive and authoritarian."

___

Associated Press writer Biswajeet Banerjee contributed to this story.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110824/ap_on_re_as/as_india_corruption_everywhere

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