Dilshan eyes Test glory

Bangalore: Tillakaratne Dilshan wants to become the first Sri Lanka captain to secure a Test series victory in England after leaving the IPL early to lead his team. Although they famously won the one-off clash at The Oval in 1998, when Muttiah Muralitharan took 16 wickets, their best results in a series on English soil is the 1-1 in 2006 which was again secured thanks to a match-winning effort by Muralitharan Trent Bridge.

This time there is no Muralitharan, but Dilshan has promised not to take a backward step over the next month. "Beating England in their own conditions in the early part of summer is not going to be easy, we have to play very good cricket to do that," he said. "But I am really confident with our boys. As a team we can give England a good run. It's a good challenge for everyone. Before the team leaves for England I will have a word with my players. We are going there with only one intention - to win the series. We are not going there just to draw or to survive in England we want to beat them. We are going to England with that mindset. I am seriously looking forward to the upcoming series."

How determined Dilshan is with his new responsibility can be gauged by the fact that he has made himself available to lead his team for the three-day tour opener, against Middlesex, starting on May 14 which meant cutting short his commitments with Royal Challengers BangaIore in the ongoing IPL tournament in India.

Unlike past captains Dilshan does not have the luxury of match-winning bowlers of the caliber of Muralitharan, Chaminda Vaas and Lasith Malinga all of whom have retired from Test cricket. However, he is confident with his new look bowling line-up, headed by Dilhara Fernando whose experience stretches to only 35 Tests and 90 wickets from a career spanning ten years, and believes team can match England, if not defeat them.

"We have to give the chance to youngsters and this is a good opportunity for them to prove how good they are at international cricket," he said. "As a captain I have a lot of confidence in my young bowlers that they can do a good job. I know the England batting line-up is very strong but I have faith with my fast bowlers and spinners that they can handle this batting line-up. I am sure these young fast bowlers will put their hands up and give their best to the team.

"We have only one experienced bowler in Dilhara but the others have the ability to deliver what they've got. With the help of fast bowling coach Champaka Ramanayake, and all the senior players who have played in England before, they can share their experience on how to adjust to the conditions in the early summer. This is a good challenge for me going with a set of young fast bowlers. As captain I have the fullest confidence that they can do a good job for Sri Lanka."

The bowlers picked to support Fernando are left-armer Chanaka Welegedara (six Tests, 12 wickets), Suranga Lakmal (two Tests, three wickets) and the uncapped pair of Nuwan Pradeep and Thisara Perera. Considering the career figures Sri Lanka's fast bowling looks pretty short of experience in comparison to the spin department. In Muralitharan's absence it will be handled by left-armer Rangana Herath (24 Tests, 78 wickets), Ajantha Mendis (15 Tests, 61 wickets) and Suraj Randiv (three Tests, 14 wickets).

Dilshan admitted that batting will be Sri Lanka's forte. "We have the same strong batting line-up we've had for the past four or five years in Test cricket. The only thing is the bowling unit is new and inexperienced. Our strength is batting but overall I am really happy with the 16-member squad. I have allrounders, spinners, fast bowlers and good batsmen. This team can turn out to be a good one in the future."

Dilshan's way of looking at everything positively is certain to rub off on the team. "I don't want to change my approach or attitude towards the game because I am captain. With my positive batting I have been very successful. I am not going to change too much from what I have been doing in the last three or four years. I have to adjust and take decisions in the middle which is the only change I foresee from what I have been doing. I am a positive character and I enjoy playing the game. I may sometimes take decisions which others might be surprised with. I think I can do a good job."

Already the responsibility of captaincy has brought a change in Dilshan. He has discarded his earring and done away with the tint in his hair. "As a captain I have to set an example for the youngsters. I have to maintain discipline both on and off the field. As captain I want to set a high standard on the field all the time. We are ambassadors of our country.

"The last few years we have played very good cricket, we have been runners up twice in the 50-over World Cup and once in the World Twenty20. We are a very consistent cricket team and I want to carry that forward by adding a few small things of my own. I need to discuss it with the new coach and coaching staff."

Dilshan's appointment as captain to succeed Kumar Sangakkara who stood down after the World Cup final defeat against India did come in for universal approval, but Dilshan isn't worried about winning any popularity contests. "If you take five people you can get five different views. Everyone can say different things about me but the Cricket Board and the selectors had the confidence to appoint me as captain," he said.

"As a cricketer it's a great achievement to captain your country. I think I am capable of leading this team and at the same time enjoy my captaincy. I am going to get 100 percent out of the players. As captain I may take surprise decisions for that's the kind of player I am. I am going with a positive frame of mind. I might turn out to be a different captain for Sri Lanka," said Dilshan.

Dilshan has still not celebrated his appointment as Sri Lanka captain, but wants to keep it until the end of the England tour. "I was a little bit excited when I first heard of my new appointment when I got a call from the cricket board. I was in India at that time and I spoke to my family and everyone was happy. I want to first finish the tour of England before celebrating the occasion." If Sri Lanka beat England he will have every right for a huge party.

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Gamers Can Kill Osama Bin Laden in New Video Game Recreation of Assassination

New York-based online game publisherKuma Games is allowing gamers to assassinate Osama Bin Laden and experience what the brave Navy SEALs went through in Pakistan through a new free PC video game. KumaWar Episode 107: Osama 2011will be available on Saturday May 7^th for anyone to download and play.

The game’s website describes the newest mission: After months of stake outs and growing amounts of Intel, a US helicopter crosses Pakistan under the cloak of darkness. Seventy-nine Navy SEALs drop from the sky into a secret compound, designed for defense and manned by Al Qaeda killers. In forty minutes and a rain of hot lead, a decades-long, worldwide manhunt for Osama Bin Laden will be ended… by you.

The website promises that “after more than 100 ripped-from-the-headlines “gameisodes,” Kuma War puts you behind the trigger that finally takes down Osama Bin Laden. Storm his mansion. Kill his guards. Don’t expect him to come quietly.”

“At Kuma, we are very sensitive and respectful of American and coalition soldiers and the sacrifices they are making every day,” said Kuma Games CEO Keith Halper. “We hope that by telling their stories with such a powerful medium that we enable the American public to gain a better appreciation of the conflicts and the dangers they face.”

Halper said that looking back at the 106 previous gameisodes of the franchise, it was important to tell this last story in order to close the door on KumaWar. The game launched on February 28, 2004 with a two-part mission that sent put gamers in control of 101^stAirborne and Special Forces to hunt down and kill Uday and Qusay Hussain, sons of Saddam and leaders of his most notorious military units.

From its very first downloadable missions, Kuma Games looked to blend the latest news around the War on Terror with video commentary from military experts like Major General Thomas L. Wilkerson (ret.) in the form of Kuma News videos. Players were then able to live through the most important battles of the wars in the Middle East.

Kuma Games builds re-creations of real-world events using advanced gaming tools. KumaWar is a first and third-person tactical squad-based game that provides multiple updates monthly to the consumer’s computer to reflect unfolding events in the real world. The game developer works with a decorated team of military veterans and U.S. soldiers returning from war.

On November 24, 2005,KumaWar allowed players to hunt down and capture Saddam Hussein, in Adwar. As some 600 soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division and Special Operations move into target areas Wolverine 1 and Wolverine 2, gamers must first capture Saddam’s two associates that aid the fugitive ex-president and then track down the Butcher of Baghhad.

Over the years, KumaWar has virtually recreated other wars and key historical moments for players to experience first-hand. To coincide with the 25th anniversary of the Iran Hostage Crisis, Kuma released a mission that sent players in to rescue 53 American hostages in Tehran on April 24, 1980. Players were able to live through John Kerry’s 1969 Vietnam War mission in the Mekong Delta, which earned the senator a Silver Star.

KumaWar has even recreated controversial modern day combat like the Battle for Fallujah. Perhaps it was because the game is free and available online. Publisher Konami Digital Entertainment canceled Atomic Games’Six Days of Fallujah in April 2009 after the game came under fire from families of soldiers killed in the battle. That game for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC was developed by the Raleigh, North Carolina studio in conjunction with Marines and other soldiers involved in the battle. The battle resulted in the deaths of 71 U.S. troops and 1,600 insurgents. Konami showed the game to media at a gaming event a few weeks before pulling the game amidst public outrage.

Killing Bin Laden shouldn’t bring any type of moral outrage, especially given the overwhelming sense of American pride and satisfaction that has gripped the nation since word spread like wildfire online on May 1 that the Al Qaeda leader was assassinated. The global reaction to his death has been positive. Allowing gamers to step into the virtual combat boots of the highly trained SEALs that took out Bin Laden will also give anyone interested a first-hand look at what transpired in those final hours. With only some bloody photos released, Kuma’s game engine will depict an accurate 3D recreation of the final hunt for the world’s most notorious terrorist.

Although they won’t be able to kill Bin Laden, gamers who want to experience the top secret missions that the brave Navy SEALs undertake at global hotspots can pick up Sony’s PlayStation 3-exclusive SOCOM 4: U.S. Navy SEALs. That game, which supports both stereo 3D and PlayStation Move, recently shipped from developer Zipper Interactive. The game allows players to hunt down terrorists and complete missions with squads of friends online.

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Bollywood's past vanishes as studio turns to dust

MUMBAI — Tears roll down the face of 79-year-old Ismail Mohammad Gauri as he recalls the glory days of Bombay Talkies, once one of Bollywood's greatest studios but which has now faded into cinema history.

He remembers the big cars that parked outside the house where he grew up, the mango trees in the studio compound where he and his friends used to play and how they were awestruck by the actors who ate in the local restaurant.

"It all sounds like those days never existed when I look at this place now," he says, gesturing towards the crumbling ruin of rubble and rubbish opposite his home in the northern Mumbai suburb of Malad.

"I just can't believe that it has turned into dust," he told AFP. "With my death nobody in this area will be able to recall those glorious days."

In two years' time, it will be 100 years since the first Indian feature film was made, giving birth to an industry that is now worth $1.85 billion a year.

"Raja Harishchandra" -- a silent film about a king in Hindu mythology -- was released in 1913. A film about its making, "Harishchandrachi Factory", was India's official entry for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 2010.

But while the maker of "Raja Harishchandra" has been revered, many like Gauri are disappointed that Bombay Talkies and other landmark sites are largely forgotten despite their role in the industry's development.

"The old things that do not generate wealth are junked into the warehouse by us," producer-director Mahesh Bhatt told the Times of India newspaper recently.

"As we journey towards the centenary year of Indian cinema, we need to confront the blunt fact that neither the state nor the film industry gives a damn about our cinematic heritage."

The Bombay Talkies Limited was the first corporate Hindi-language film studio and helped launch the careers of legendary actors like Dilip Kumar, Ashok Kumar, Dev Anand, Raj Kapoor and Devika Rani.

Film score singers Lata Mangeshkar and Kishore Kumar were also regulars.

Set up in 1934, at its height it employed about 5,000 people and was considered to be Asia's largest film-producing studio in the 1940s using state-of-the-art techniques.

The studio's decline began after the death of joint founder Devika Rani's husband, Himanshu Rai, and differences with her business partners. It started running up losses and was sold.

Since its closure in 1954, it has become home to carpenters and mechanics or used as a dumping ground and an open-air urinal.

Three fires in recent years gutted many of the businesses and nothing now remains of the studio except one dilapidated set from the 1949 film "Mahal" (The Palace), which was Bollywood's first horror film.

Nowadays, Malad is more known for its gleaming call centres and upmarket shopping malls than its once-famous film studio.

"Nobody comes here from the film world and nobody knows that this structure even exists," said Kamlesh Pandey, one of the factory workers working in the former studio compound.

"This place is the forgotten past of the film industry and we don't think too much about it as we are more busy with our daily chores."

The fate of the Bombay Talkies is not an uncommon one.

Many of India's historic buildings are crumbling through neglect, lack of funding for repairs or the pressure for space in the country's overcrowded cities.

They include the old Watson's Hotel, once Mumbai's most exclusive hotel, where France's Lumiere Brothers first showed their newfangled invention of cinematography in India in 1896, kickstarting a nation's obsession with film.

Years of neglect have resulted in the building -- thought to be the world's oldest inhabited cast-iron structure -- being placed on the local authority's "most dilapidated" list.

Fears have also been raised about the future of the Filmistan Studio, another vintage Bollywood studio, amid reports that it could be sold off for redevelopment, although the owners insist they are staying put.

Film historian Amrit Gangar, though, is hopeful that the authorities in India's entertainment capital will recognise the place that Bombay Talkies has in the history of Bollywood.

"I have written to Heritage Committee members that they need to do something," he said. "It stinks and I feel ashamed to see such an important historical place reduced to a dustbin. The government has to take action."

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The Embassy of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh in Kathmandu celebrated Mujibnagar Day

7th May : Kathmandu, Nepal--

The Embassy of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh in Kathmandu celebrated ‘Mujibnagar Day’ in a befitting manner.

17 April is the Mujibnagar Day of Bangladesh. On this day in 1971, the Mujibnagar government that is the government in exile formed by the leaders of the Awami League, who were leading the liberation war for the independence of Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) from Pakistan. This government was formed at the Baidyanathtala mango grove of Meherpur, a former Subdivision of Kustia district bordering India. The oath taking was witnessed by hundreds of foreign journalists who had assembled there to hail the birth of a new nation.

The formation of the Mujibnagar government and its pronouncement to the world at large is really a red-letter event in our national history, especially after the thumping victory of the Awami League in the elections of 1970 under the leadership of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

The president of the new nation was the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman; Syed Nazrul Islam became the acting president in the absence of Bangabandhu; Tajuddin Ahmed, the Prime Minister; M. Mansur Ali, the Finance Minister; M. Quamruz Zaman, the Home, Relief and Rehabilitation Minister; and General M. A. G. Osmani who was then a retired colonel was made the C-in-C of the Bangladesh Armed Forces.

In this connection, the Embassy drew up various programmes that also included discussion on the significance of the day, special prayer and cultural programme with participation from Bangladeshi and Nepali artists at the Nepal Army Club Auditorium on 04 May 2011. 

The program started with the National Anthem of Bangladesh and Nepal played by the Nepal Army band. One minute silence was observed to pay respect to the martyrs of the liberation war in 1971. Nepal’s contributions during Bangladesh’s liberation war were also highlighted in the meeting. 

Right Honorable Mr. Paramananda Jha, Vice President of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal attended the program as chief guest. Right Honorable Mr. Paramananda Jha, Vice President, Government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal. 

Honorable State Minister Ministry of Liberation War Affairs of Bangladesh, Captain (retd) A.B. Tajul Islam, MP, eminent intellectual of Bangladesh Prof. Dr. Anisuzzaman, Ex-Secretary General, Mukti Jodha Sangsad ( Freedom Fighter’s Council) Mr Md. Salauddin, Secretary General, Mukti Jodha Sangsad ( Freedom Fighter’s Council) Mr Monwarul Haq Lablu, Investigation officer, International War Crimes Tribunal Mr. ASM Shamsul Arefin, President of Nepal Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry Mr. Laxmi Bahadur Shresta and Ambassador of Bangladesh HE Dr. Neem Chandra Bhowmik spoke on this occasion. Additional Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh Mr. Mustafa Kamal was also present on this occasion. 

Member of Constituent Assembly, important political leaders, secretaries, ambassadors, diplomats, former ambassadors to Bangladesh, high government officials, media persons, artists, number of Nepali students, professionals, media persons, intellectuals, expatriate Bangladeshis, officers & staff members of this Embassy and their family members attended the above mentioned programmes. 

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India to supply power to Bangladesh

NEW DELHI — India said Saturday it would start to supply some 250 megawatts of power to neighbouring Bangladesh by 2013 as it moves to cement relations between the South Asian neighbours.
The step is part of a drive by the two countries for closer ties.
"Work on the transmission line to connect the two countries for supply of the 250 megawatts of power promised by India is proceeding apace," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in New Delhi.
"We expect power to flow by 2013," he told reporters.
The two countries agreed during a visit to India by Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in January 2010 that they would cooperate in areas including security and energy.
The two countries signed a 35-year landmark electricity transmission deal under which India will eventually export up to 500 megawatts of power to Bangladesh.
Mukherjee added that a concessional loan to Bangladesh of $1 billion would be used for building infrastructure in the neighbouring country, and would include the supply of buses, railway coaches and railway infrastructure.
The minister visited Dhaka in August 2010 to witness the signing of the $1 billion line of credit agreement, the largest sum ever offered by India to any country on soft terms.
The developments mark a warming of ties between the two nations.
Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan, won independence in 1971 with Indian military help but relations between the two countries have gone through periods of strain.
Ties were frosty from 2001 to 2006 when Bangladesh was ruled by an Islamist-allied government and New Delhi regularly accused Dhaka of harbouring Indian insurgents and fostering militancy.

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Bangladesh's Yunus fears for microlender

DHAKA — Yunus said Saturday he fears for the survival of his pioneering microlender Grameen Bank, days after his removal as its chief was upheld by the country's highest court.

The 2006 Nobel winner said the future of the Grameen Bank -- the world's largest microlender which he founded -- is at stake as the government meddles in the affairs of the bank, 96.5 percent owned by poor women.

"I am humbly appealing to all for the protection and independence of Grameen Bank and the protection of poor women who are working very hard to stand on their feet," Yunus, 70, said in his first reaction to the court verdict.

"There is growing doubt as to whether any civil society effort can survive and retain its character and independence in this politically influenced environment," he said in a statement.

Supporters say Yunus -- known as "the banker to the poor" -- has been victimised by Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, whom he crossed in 2007 when he briefly set up a political party during a period of military rule.

In sign of growing tension, a Grameen Bank union leader said he was tortured late Friday by unidentified men after the union threatened to stage nationwide demonstrations over Yunus's sacking.

Sagir Rashid Chowdhury, 38, told AFP he was hauled into a minibus and taken near Dhaka University where he was beaten and threatened with pistols.

"They said they would kill me if I don't call off the protests. They beat me with sticks. I begged for my life. They broke my hands and left me in a field." Nurse Golam Mostafa of the government's orthopaedic hospital confirmed the injuries. "Chowdhury has torture marks all over his body. One of his fingers was also broken."

There was no immediate reaction available from authorities.

Grameen board members, who challenged Yunus's removal, alleged earlier they were also intimidated and threatened by unidentified men.

Yunus was first dismissed as head of the microlender on March 2 in a power struggle with the government for control of the bank -- but he defied the order, returning to work and filing a legal appeal against the sacking.

But the Supreme Court ruled Grameen Bank was a government institution, not a private bank as Yunus and his lawyers maintained, meaning Yunus must abide by the state's mandatory retirement age of 60.

The ruling dashed his last hopes to stay at helm of the microlender which has lent more than $10 billion to 8.3 million mostly rural women since its inception in 1983.

Yunus and Grameen Bank jointly won the Nobel peace prize in 2006 for creating "economic and social development from below".

The model has been copied in other developing countries and Yunus's sacking was widely criticised by international supporters including the US government.

Yunus maintains the bank is owned by its borrowers and the government should stay out of its business for the sake of the microlender's furture.

"What happens to Grameen Bank influences the future of the millions of Bangladeshis who benefit from microcredit activities, as well as the future of the institution of microcredit itself," he said.

"The big questions are: whether Grameen Bank can maintain its independent existence, whether it can be successful in keeping itself away from political influences," he said.

"What actually happens to financial institutions in our country if political influences start playing a role in these institutions is common knowledge. This experience will not inspire trust in borrowers."

Analysts say Grameen's huge influence in Bangladesh and its move into solar panels, mobile phones and other consumer goods has triggered the government's envy.

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China's spying seeks secret

ALEXANDRIA, Va.—The young man stood before the judge, his usually neatly trimmed hair now long enough to brush the collar of his prison jumpsuit. Glenn Duffie Shriver had confessed his transgressions and was here, in a federal courtroom with his mother watching, to receive his sentence and to try, somehow, to explain it all.
When the time came for him to address the court, he spoke of the many dreams he'd had to work on behalf of his country.
"Mine was to be a life of service," he said. "I could have been very valuable. That was originally my plan."
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EDITOR'S NOTE—China, ever more powerful, has become a major instigator of espionage in the United States. First of a two-part series on Beijing's efforts, many successful, to steal American secrets and technology.
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He had been a seemingly all-American, clean-cut guy: No criminal record. Engaged to be married. A job teaching English overseas. In letters to the judge, loved ones described the 29-year-old Midwesterner as honest and caring—a good citizen. His fiancee called him "Mr. Patriot."
Such descriptions make the one that culminated in the courtroom all the more baffling: Glenn Shriver was also a spy recruit for China. He took $70,000 from individuals he knew to be Chinese intelligence officers to try to land a job with a U.S. government agency—first the State Department and later the CIA.
And Shriver is just
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one of at least 57 defendants in federal prosecutions since 2008 charging espionage conspiracies with China or efforts to pass classified information, sensitive technology or trade secrets to intelligence operatives, state-sponsored entities, private individuals or businesses in China, according to an Associated Press review of U.S. Justice Department cases.
Of those, nine are awaiting trial, and two are considered fugitives. The other defendants have been convicted, though some are yet to be sentenced.
Most of these prosecutions have received little public attention—especially compared with the headline splash that followed last summer's arrest of 10 Russian "sleeper agents" who'd been living in suburban America for more than a decade but, according to Attorney General Eric Holder, passed no secrets.
Contrast that with this snapshot:
—In Honolulu, a former B-2 bomber engineer and one-time professor at Purdue gets 32 years in prison for working with the Chinese to develop a vital part for a cruise missile in a case that a high-ranking Justice Department official said resulted in the leak of "some of our country's most sensitive weapons-related designs."
—In Boston, a Harvard-educated businessman is sent to prison, along with his ex-wife, for conspiring for a decade to illegally export parts used in military radar and electronic warfare systems to research institutes that manufacture items for the Chinese military. The Department of Defense concluded the illegal exports "represented a serious threat to U.S. national and regional defense security interests."
—In Los Angeles, a man goes to jail for selling Raytheon-manufactured thermal imaging cameras to a buyer in Shanghai whose company develops infrared technology. The cameras are supposed to be restricted for export to China because of "their potential use in a wide variety of military and civilian applications," according to court documents.
—And in Alexandra, Va., there is Shriver, who told the judge quite simply: "Somewhere along the way, I climbed into bed with the wrong people."
All five of these defendants were sentenced over just an 11-day span earlier this year.
In Shriver's case, when once he asked his Chinese handlers—"What, exactly, do you guys want?"—the response, as detailed in court documents, was straightforward.
"If it's possible," they told him, "we want you to get us some secrets or classified information."
Despite denials from Beijing, counterintelligence experts say the cases reveal the Chinese as among the most active espionage offenders in America today, paying more money and going to greater lengths to glean whatever information they can from the United States.
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Just after the New Year, at an airfield in Chengdu, the Chinese military unveiled its first prototype stealth fighter jet: A radar-eluding plane called the J-20, which made its maiden test flight even as U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates was in Beijing on a rare visit.
If most Americans paid little attention, U.S. defense analysts were watching closely. And they were caught a bit off-guard.
Gates would later acknowledge that the flight came six months to a year before intelligence estimated it might happen.
So how did the Chinese do it? Was it reverse-engineering from parts taken after an American aircraft was shot down over Serbia in 1999, as some Balkan military officials alleged in interviews with The Associated Press?
Or was some of the technological know-how obtained through a U.S. engineer who spent several years working illegally to help the Chinese develop stealth technology?
A federal prosecutor raised the possibility of a link between the activities of Noshir Gowadia, once a key engineer on America's B-2 bomber program, and the faster-than-expected development of Chinese stealth aircraft designs. The comments came just before Gowadia was sentenced to prison in a Honolulu court in January on espionage charges. He was convicted of 14 counts, including communicating national defense information to aid a foreign nation and violating the Arms Export Control Act.
"China aggressively seeks U.S. defense technologies, and the People's Liberation Army are now shown to have been actively working on stealth aircraft designs, most certainly during Gowadia's visits there," Assistant U.S. Attorney Ken Sorenson wrote in a court filing, noting Gowadia worked in and with China for two years developing a stealth engine nozzle design.
In an interview, Sorenson said he couldn't comment on any evidence of a link but added that "when an expert of that quality lands on your shores, and you're interested in developing stealth technologies ... don't you think it's reasonable to assume that to some degree he's assisting them in overall development? That is the kind of stakes we talk about when we talk about the transfer of these U.S.-born military technologies."
For years, U.S. counterintelligence experts have cited a growing espionage threat from China, the product of an ever-more competitive world in which technology is as vital as political intelligence—but a sign, too, of China's increasing prosperity, persistence and patience.
Recent cases reveal not only a high level of activity but also signs of changing tactics and emboldened efforts. In one case, a convicted spy managed to convince not one but two U.S. government officials to pass him secret information, telling them it was going to Taiwan when he instead passed it to a Chinese official.
The recruitment of more non-Chinese, such as Shriver and Gowadia (an India-born, naturalized U.S. citizen), also represents a shift, said Larry Wortzel, a former Army intelligence officer who serves on the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. In the past, said Wortzel, China preferred to deal with those "assessed as sympathetic to China or with ethnic Chinese."
And then there are the so-called "espionage entrepreneurs," motivated simply by money.
When asked about the recent cases, the Chinese Foreign Ministry questioned the statistics, responding in a faxed statement: "To speak of the Chinese side's so-called 'espionage activities' in the United States is pure nonsense with ulterior motives."
However, Joel Brenner, who served as the U.S. National Counterintelligence Executive from 2006 to 2009, said: "The Chinese espionage threat has been relentless recently ... we've never seen anything like it. Some of it's public. Some of it's private. And some of it lies in that ambiguous area in between."
Today's "agents" are professors and engineers, businessmen exporting legitimate products while also shipping restricted technology and munitions, criminal capitalists who see only dollar signs. While some may be acting at the direction of a government handler, others supply information to firms for either private enterprise or state-sponsored research—or both.
Driving all of this, U.S. officials said, are China's desire to develop a modernized military and its burgeoning wealth; last year China surpassed Japan as the world's second-largest economy, behind only the United States.
"They have more money to pay for things," said Steve Pelak, a deputy chief of the Justice Department's counterespionage section who points to the amounts given to Shriver before he was ever in a position to access, much less pass, secrets.
Still more money is going to private firms to help develop and build China's military technology, sometimes through parts obtained illegally from U.S. manufacturers.
Indeed most of the Justice Department cases reviewed by the AP involve the illegal export of restricted defense-related parts or so-called "dual-use" technology, which can have commercial or military applications. These are items such as integrated circuits for radar systems, high-power amplifiers designed for use in early-warning radar and missile target acquisition systems, and military grade night-vision technology.
But that only scratches the surface. Other cases involve the theft of trade secrets by individuals once employed at major U.S. corporations, including Boeing, Motorola and Dow. In some instances, the secrets were computer source codes or, in cases still awaiting trial, related to the development of organic pesticides and telephone communications technology.
Stolen information about the space shuttle and technical data about the capabilities of the U.S. Navy's nuclear-powered submarines have also been passed along, as has simulation software used to help train fighter pilots.
While export cases and economic espionage comprise most of the China-related intelligence prosecutions in recent years, there have been a few notable instances of more traditional espionage—among them the Shriver case and that of Tai Shen Kuo, a Louisiana businessman born in Taiwan who obtained information from two federal government employees that he passed to China.
It all fits into what some experts call China's "vacuum cleaner" approach to information-collection: Catch whatever you can.
"It's a little like ... the cancer that you don't know your body has. You don't know that you're in trouble until it manifests itself in ways that really, really hurt you," said Michelle Van Cleave, another former National Counterintelligence Executive who served under President George W. Bush.
She points to revelations that surfaced throughout the 1990s regarding China's procurement of U.S. nuclear secrets. The public controversy came to a head in 1999, when a select congressional committee was named to investigate Chinese espionage and security concerns at U.S. weapons labs.
Then came the government's bungled handling of Wen Ho Lee, the former scientist once identified as the focus of a probe into the theft of nuclear secrets at Los Alamos National Laboratory who wound up pleading guilty to a single count of downloading sensitive material.
Intelligence assessments later concluded that China's successful nuclear espionage effort dated back to at least the late 1970s, and reports blamed everything from foreign visitor and scientific exchange programs to espionage on the part of scientists such as Peter Lee, another Los Alamos researcher who did share classified information with Chinese scientists.
But as Van Cleave points out: The exact methods used to acquire those secrets may never be known.
"We know they have them," she said. "We just don't know how they got them."
Today, with ever more cases being prosecuted, we do know more—not only about what's being pursued, but how and why.
———
"If you have customers in mainland China, please let us know if we could be of any help. In China, it seems impossible for most companies to buy directly from US. We can act as middleman for you."
It was 1996 and Zhen Zhou "Alex" Wu, a one-time schoolteacher in his native China who later studied at Harvard, was e-mailing a firm to pitch his new business: A company dedicated to selling electronics components to Chinese customers. Based in Shenzhen, China, the company, Chitron, opened a single U.S. office in Waltham, Mass., to acquire and ship desired technology.
The Massachusetts firm, federal authorities now say, was merely a front to facilitate the export of defense technology from U.S. manufacturers to Chinese military-related institutes. And Wu now sits in a federal prison after being sentenced in January to eight years for conspiring to illegally export restricted technologies.
According to the Department of Defense, the exported items are "vital for Chinese military electronic warfare, military radar, fire control, military guidance and control equipment, and satellite communications." Also included: parts "that the People's Liberation Army actively seeks to acquire."
The use of front companies, or private firms that may also do legitimate business, is a common way that China seeks information, said Pelak, who in 2007 was appointed the Justice Department's first national export control coordinator, focusing on illegal export of munitions and sensitive technology. Prosecutions have since gone up, and today two-thirds of federal illegal export cases involve either China or Iran.
"Those private firms, in China and operating elsewhere, they're paid money to do this and they have great incentive to be doing it," said Pelak.
Take the case of William Chi-Wai Tsu, a naturalized U.S. citizen and electrical engineer serving a three-year prison sentence for illegally shipping several hundred thumbnail-size integrated circuits to a Beijing company called Dimagit Science & Technology. Investigators said the circuits have a variety of potential applications, including use in sophisticated communications and military radar systems.
Dimagit's catalog, according to court records, displayed images of Chinese military craft and promised: "We unswervingly take providing the motherland with safe, reliable and advanced electronic technical support to revitalize the national defense industry as our mission. Ride the wind and cleave the waves, and set sail to cross the sea."
Among Dimagit's clients: a research institute affiliated with the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp.
Court records reviewed by the AP describe how Tsu went about acquiring restricted parts: He created a fictitious company called Cheerway Trading and used the California address of a friend for shipping. He then provided false end-user statements to American electronics distributors, promising that the parts he sought were not for export but for domestic use—specifically a project with Cisco Systems. If a distributor pressed Tsu, he would claim that nondisclosure agreements prevented him from providing more detail.
Similar tactics were used in a case still awaiting sentencing in Seattle. Lian Yang, a former software engineer at Microsoft, pleaded guilty in late March to attempting to buy restricted technology for a "partner" in China—specifically 300 radiation-hardened programmable semiconductor devices that are used in satellites.
Yang told a confidential FBI source that he had old school friends in China who'd made money importing electronic components from the United States. He suggested creating a fake U.S. company to list as the end-user for parts that would, in actuality, be exported to China.
"Say we need it (the parts) for R and D," he said, meaning research and development, further suggesting that the informant be listed as the company contact because that individual had a non-Chinese name. "And I will be the secret shareholder," said a laughing Yang, according to a court affidavit.
Yang was arrested last Dec. 3 after he handed $20,000 to undercover agents in exchange for five of the semiconductor devices. He later confessed that he intended to drive to Canada and then fly to China to deliver the parts himself. His sentencing is set for June 30.
"Boiled down to its essence, the defendant's offense amounted to a form of espionage on behalf of the People's Republic of China," prosecutors argued in court papers.
However, some defense attorneys counter that these export cases aren't espionage at all or even deliberate attempts to circumvent U.S. laws—but rather an outgrowth of confusing policies and, perhaps, overzealous prosecutors.
In the Chitron case, appeals lawyers for Alex Wu insist U.S. export regulations don't make clear enough what can and cannot be legally exported.
"Wu and others at his firm were not equipped and did not have the training needed to understand this country's extremely complicated export control laws," said his lawyer, Michael Schneider.
Stephanie Siegmann, the assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted the case, responded that evidence clearly showed that Wu did understand the export restrictions. One spreadsheet found on his computer was titled, "GP (Gross Profit) for USA Restricted Military Parts." In e-mails he repeatedly instructed an employee, "Do not say you export parts. Just say you are broker."
To get around export laws, court documents said, Chitron workers identified defense-related parts as "electronics components" classified as "No License Required" and falsely listed freight forwarders in Hong Kong (where U.S. export policies are more lenient) as the end-user.
Among the parts exported: phase shifters used in military radar systems.
"With such equipment," the Department of Defense's Defense Technology Security Administration concluded, "China could defeat U.S. weapon systems."
———
Earlier this year, retired FBI agent I.C. Smith gave a speech called "China's Mole" at the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. It was about a man who landed a job with the Central Intelligence Agency and later turned out to be a spy for China.
As Smith told a rapt audience: "The intelligence community had been penetrated."
He was referring to one of the most damaging Chinese espionage cases of all time: the infiltration of Larry Chin, a naturalized U.S. citizen who in 1986 admitted to spying for China during his almost three decades with the CIA. As a former Chinese counterintelligence supervisor, Smith helped investigate Chin, who later committed suicide.
Smith was stunned to learn of the 5 1/2-year recruitment of Glenn Shriver and China's "run at the front door" of America's pre-eminent intelligence agency.
"The Chinese," Smith said, "still have the capacity to surprise."
How did they do it in Shriver's case? Standing before a federal judge on a blustery day in January, Shriver tried to explain how he went down the path to betrayal.
"It started out fairly innocuous," he recalled. During a college study-abroad program in Shanghai, he was taken with Chinese culture and became proficient in Mandarin. After graduating from Grand Valley State University in Michigan in 2004, he returned to China to look for work.
Shriver was just 22 years old when, in October 2004, he first met a woman in Shanghai who would introduce him to the Chinese intelligence officers who persuaded him to consider turning against his own country. According to court documents, he'd responded to an English-language ad looking for scholars of East Asian studies to write political papers.
He met several times with a woman called "Amanda," delivered to her a paper about U.S.-China relations regarding North Korea and Taiwan, and was paid $120.
She later asked Shriver if he'd be interested in meeting some other people—two men he came to know as "Mr. Wu" and "Mr. Tang." Over the next several years, they would meet at least 20 times.
As outlined in court documents and Shriver's own statements, the conversations, at first, focused on developing a "friendship." The men asked Shriver what type of work he was interested in and said that if he planned on seeking a job with a U.S. government agency, "we can be close friends." Had he ever thought about working for the U.S. State Department or, perhaps, the CIA? "That would be pretty good," they told him.
"Only one time was I told that they would like secrets," Shriver told the judge.
Six months after first meeting "Amanda," Shriver applied for a job as a foreign service officer with the U.S. State Department. Though he failed the foreign service exam, the intelligence officers paid him $10,000. A year later, in April 2006, he took the exam a second time but again failed. He was nevertheless paid $20,000.
Then, in June 2007, Shriver applied for a position in the clandestine branch of the CIA. A few months later, he asked the Chinese intelligence officers for $40,000 for his efforts.
During all this time, friends and family—Shriver's mother, especially—thought he was just trying to figure out what to do with his life. He moved for a while to Los Angeles, and talked about becoming a police officer or joining the Peace Corps. Eventually he returned overseas, this time to Korea, where he taught English and got engaged to a girl named Yumi.
No one knew he was continuing to communicate with his Chinese handler, "Amanda."
In June 2010, Shriver underwent a series of final security screening interviews at the CIA in Virginia, during which he lied in response to questions about any previous affiliation with foreign intelligence officers. A week later, he was arrested—U.S. officials wouldn't disclose what led them to him—and his clandestine life unraveled.
"Nobody knew. Nobody," said his mother, Karen Chavez. "He was a good kid. Worked, earned money, was respectful. ... I don't know what he was thinking."
The closest her son came to an explanation was when he told the sentencing judge: "I think I was motivated by greed."
In a telephone interview from prison in April, Shriver tried to expand on that.
"When you're 23 years old living in a very fun city, you almost get addicted to money and you just kind of have it on tap," he told the AP. "After a while it's kind of like: OK, I'm kind of up on what these guys are doing. But by then it's just money getting thrown at you. I'm just like ... I can apply to this, get some money and then just continue on with my life."
Even now he wonders aloud: "What, exactly, did I do that was so illegal?"
Shriver pleaded guilty to conspiracy to communicate national defense information and is serving a four-year prison term.
It's true that he was, after all, never in a position to actually do any spying. No harm done? That may depend on how you look at it.
"This case shows an aggressive attempt by (China) to recruit an American citizen and attempt to place him in one of the nation's premier intelligence agencies," said Neil MacBride, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, whose office has handled a number of China-related intelligence cases.
"Foreign intelligence services are watching," he said, "and they're looking for any weakness they can identify and exploit."

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Farah: Leading lady at 40!

Ace choreographer -filmmaker Farah Khan is all set to make her Bollywood debut as a lead actor. The woman who created Munni and Sheila has been signed on as the leading lady in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Shirin Farhad to be directed by his sister Bela.

A visibly glowing Khan met us at her Seven Bungalows flat and kickstarted a rather interesting and revealing tete-a-tete, saying, "Shoot your questions. My triplets just went to sleep, they sleep in unison."

How did it feel when you were asked to play the female lead in Bhansali's Shirin Farhad?
Thinking he was pulling my leg, I said, 'You're mad'.

Understandable, since the two of you have often taken digs at each other...
(Laughs) Yeah, we have trashed each other in the past. We have actually shared a very off-on relationship. We started our careers around the same time (pauses and stares at the ceiling).

Go on...
But we have been more than fine with each other for the past couple of years. We started bonding after my babies were born. He sent me a very sweet SMS and I sent biryani on his birthday. Since then we have been very cordial.
Did you say 'yes' to Bhansali instantly?
(Smiles) I asked Shirish if he would be embarrassed to see his 40-plus wife as a heroine. He said 'Farah, I am chilled out about this. As long as you like the script, please go ahead'. I have full faith in Bela's directorial abilities.
Have you and Bhansali changed?
We are in our 40s. You can't be in your 40s and behave the same way as you did in your 20s or 30s. If yes, then you are retarded. I have definitely changed. Life has been rather good to me. I can't still behave cracked.

At one point it was nice, but as you grow older, you become caring and sensitive. I'll be honest, but I won't make fun of someone or his/her film just because I think it's cool. As for Sanjay, even he has mellowed down. Yes, he is a moody man but he has a great sense of humour.
Do all patch-ups lead to a film? Your patch-up with Shah Rukh Khan hasn't culminated in a project together, hence this question.
I didn't go to his vanity van because I wanted him in my next film.
Are friendships in the industry need based?
Sometimes, I feel that they are. Else why would Shah Rukh get so angry and take such a high stand if I didn't do a film with him?
Is there a possibility of him starring in your next film?
I haven't thought about it.
People are talking about your newfound friendship with Hrithik Roshan. Buzz is, he will star in your next film.
As I said, I haven't thought about the casting yet. And my friendship with Hrithik is not newfound. I know him since Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai.
People expected your last film Tees Maar Khan to do better...
Jeez that's a compliment.
But were you okay with it?
No. It hit me. People were out there to tear my film apart. But on hindsight, I think it was good for me. I think people want my films to be very big and emotional all the time.

People expected you to drop Akshay Kumar from Joker after Tees Maar Khan...
Why would I do that? Akshay did everything I asked him to. If anybody needs to be blamed for Tees Maar Khan failure, it's me.

Did you ever feel that if Tees Maar Khan starred SRK...
(Interrupts) No. Never. Those who didn't like Tees Maar Khan wouldn't have liked it with anybody else.

Katrina Kaif or Sonakshi Sinha who is a better dancer?
In Joker, Sonakshi was told to dance impromptu. In Tees Maar Khan, I had choreographed the item number which Katrina had rehearsed. Unless both dance with equal practice done, we shouldn't analyse this.

Diplomatic answer?
No yaar.

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Mom is their superstar

Behind their macho images lie thorough mamma’s boys! Bollywood heroes reveal their softer side on the occasion of Mother’s Day, talking about how their mothers have influenced them, not just through their growing years, but in their careers and adult lives.

From the all-powerful Khans —Shah Rukh, Salman, Aamir and Saif — to the younger Ranbir Kapoor, Imran Khan and others, B’town owes much to mere paas ma hain!

Shah Rukh Khan - Taking a page out of her book

Shah Rukh King Khan has often spoken of his mother, Lateef Fatima Khan, and her struggles as a widow with young children. “I have always been influenced by my mom and her teachings,” he says. “Since my father expired early it was mom who brought us up. She was a learned and a gentle woman, who had studied at Oxford. She would teach me by making the lesson fun. I was a bad student in Hindi and I flunked the tests once. Instead of scolding me as most parents do, she taught me like it was a game. Now, when I teach my kids something, I try to apply the same method. There are many such endearing moments with her that will always remain with me.”

Saif Ali Khan - Wind beneath his wings

Chote nawab Saif Ali Khan has always been close to mom Sharmila Tagore. “She is a strong lady and influenced us most during our growing years,” he says. “We were all scared of our father and hardly spoke to him but mom was always friendly. We were brought up in a traditional style and she made sure that we participated in all the religious customs and traditions. But she also gave us a lot of space. She let me make my own decisions, never interfered in my work. It’s ironical that while I was always influenced by her, today I want to be like my father!”

Ranbir Kapoor - Like mother like son

Ranbir Kapoor candidly admits that he has always been known as a mamma’s boy. “I still am a mamma’s boy!” he says disarmingly. A leading heroine in her time, Neetu Kapoor allowed her career to take a back seat to family. “My formative years were largely influenced by her as dad was busy working. I used to be afraid of him. It was always mom for us. Even today, I am told to brush my teeth every night and remove my make-up before going to bed. She still sees to it that I have my daily quota of vegetables. My sister is more like my dad. I am more like mom.”

Govinda - The face of courage

Govinda says that his mother Nirmala Devi, a well-known singer of yesteryears, has been “the strongest influence” in his life. “I remember my mother in times of happiness and sadness. She was a very strong lady who suffered a lot of hardships but never let it affect the family. Her strong demeanour and nature influenced me. There was a time when I had signed on too many films and could not cope with the pressure. I had a nervous breakdown and when my mother visited me in the hospital she said, ‘let the crown adorn your head, don’t let the head adorn the crown’. I will never forget her advice.”

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First lady’s UNI speech touches on politics

First lady Michelle Obama just wrapped up the keynote speech at University of Northern Iowa’s commencement.  I live-tweeted the speech: Twitter.com/kobradovich. #uni

It was long on feel-good inspiration appropriate to the occasion, and very short on politics. One exception was the particular mention of the special-ops team that found and killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. The context was the value of service to others.

“Just imagine, a small group of brave men, dropped by helicopter in the dead of night into unknown danger inside the lair of the most wanted man in the world,” she said. “They did not hesitate. Risking everything for us, for our freedom and security.”

President Obama’s job-approval ratings took a 6-point jump in the Gallup poll after last Sunday’s announcement of bin Laden’s demise. His surrogates are not going to miss an opportunity to bring it up as the Obama campaign ramps up in Iowa and elsewhere.

One other point that could be read as having political overtones: Mrs. Obama praised Iowans for not “rushing to judgment.”

“This is something that I think truly defines the state of  Iowa and its people: You all don’t rush to judgment.  You give just about anyone a respectful hearing. That was certainly my experience,” she said, referring to the 2008 campaign.

She likely hopes that continues to be true at a time when President Obama’s job-approval ratings in Iowa have been malingering below the 50 percent mark and GOP presidential candidates are dominating the news.

This was not a political occasion, however, and Mrs. Obama gave a very appropriate, uplifting and crowd-pleasing speech. She was an asset on the campaign trail in Iowa during the last campaign and it’s clear she will be again.

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Hollywood banks on star appeal of superheroes

Movie studios are banking on a group of comic book heroes to boost box-office totals this summer.
"Thor," "Captain America" and "X-Men: First Class," all feature characters from the Marvel Comics universe, and "Green Lantern," from DC Comics, will hit the big screen between now and late July.
Executives hope these iconic superheroes have the power to turn around lagging ticket sales, which are running as much as 20% below last year's mark, according to industry analysts.
"There's no question about it. The 'Thor' movie and the 'Captain America' movie are the next big things for the company," says Joe Quesada, Marvel's Chief Creative Officer.
There's good reason to think comic book heroes can be a hit. "The Dark Knight" pulled in more than $1 billion worldwide in 2008, while the three "Spider-Man" movies are among the top 30 all-time top-grossing movies worldwide.
 MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT Thor is one of the comic book heroes who will appear on the big screen this summer.
It takes more than just putting an actor in a fancy suit to ensure success. For every hit like "Superman Returns," there's been a flop like "Daredevil." It's tricky to create a hit. It takes picking the right characters, finding the right script, casting the right actors and dealing with a built-in fan base that can make or break a movie.
Most of the box-office success stories are for characters already popular in general pop culture: "Batman," "Spider-Man," "Superman."
This summer, "Thor" is the least known of the characters.
Kevin Feige, Marvel Studios president of production, is certain Thor's out-of-this-world setting will make the movie a big draw. He wanted to expand the movie template after Earth-bound films featuring Spider-Man, the X-Men, Hulk and Iron Man.
"I like the idea of going to outer space. To going to more of a sci-fi sandbox," says Feige. "It's just much more of a sci-fi edge which I always wanted to be a part of.
"I'm very proud that we've pulled it off in a way that all audiences, whether they have read comics or haven't read comics, or like science fiction or don't like science fiction, can respond to and relate to."
There is payoff for comic book companies if the films do well. Movies -- like video games, animation and online products -- have become a major part of the comic book industry. A successful movie tends to spark new interest in comic book sales.
Comic book movies also come with product placements, which are added income sources. Store shelves are already lined with action figures, T-shirts, games and other merchandise featuring the films.
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HOW TO: Build a Mobile App for Better Customer Support

Roberto Pieraccini is chief technology officer at SpeechCycle, a global leader in customer experience management solutions. He has been at the leading edge of spoken dialogue technology for more than 25 years, both in research as well as in the development of commercial applications. Follow SpeechCycle on Twitter @speechcycle.
The widespread adoption of smartphones has already revolutionized our everyday behavior and, in particular the way we communicate. We read on smartphones, play on smartphones, reserve our dinner or movie tickets on smartphones and, sometimes, we even use them to call people. In fact, it was recently reported that the use of smartphone applications is exceeding that of text messaging, voice calling and web browsing.
What does all this mean for customer care channels? Invoking a branded icon on the touch screen of a smartphone — which already knows who we are and can provide the best personalized solution to our service problems — is no doubt a more pleasant experience than interacting with an automated call menu or waiting for the next available representative. However, building a smartphone application that’s able to deliver a superior customer care experience is more complicated than just porting a mobile version of your FAQ.
Here are a few points that every company should consider when deciding to develop a mobile customer care solution.

Create a Platform-Agnostic App

One of the main issues with the development and maintenance of smartphone applications lies in the fragmentation of the device base. Fortunately, most, if not all, smartphones can be grouped according to the four most common mobile operating systems: iOS (iPhone), BlackBerry, Android and Windows Phone 7. Even so, maintaining four versions of the same application can be prohibitively expensive for some brands.

In that case, you might want to consider using cross-platform mobile frameworks in the construction of your app. They’re not perfect, but they can be cost-effective. Additionally, advances in modern web standards like HTML5 and CSS3 mean that mobile web apps are functioning more and more like native mobile apps. If you can build a great mobile site, it would function well on most modern mobile devices.

Ensure the App Integrates Into the Overall Customer Care Strategy

In moving toward mobile customer care strategies, service providers have to consider that while the adoption of smartphone applications will continue to increase, the need for traditional care — agents, automated phone applications, the web — will still exist, even if at a reduced level. Thus the integration of smartphone self-service applications with traditional channels is essential.

For instance, as the result of a transaction on a smartphone, the application can decide to transfer the user to the right agent for the requested task or schedule a callback, while providing the target agent with information about the subscriber’s issue and interaction history. Or, if the user decides to access support on the desktop website, the interface there should be able to get the same historic information about the user as the smartphone app does.

In a nutshell, you need to make sure one hand of your customer care strategy knows what the other hand is doing to ensure a cohesive, effective system.


The “always available, always connected” property of smartphones is a uniquely new channel for pushing notifications in a non-intrusive and highly personalized manner. Targeted notification, such as information concerning a local outage, new features or promotions, will not only improve the customer experience but will be instrumental in avoiding further issues and calls to agents and will increase the loyalty of valuable customers. The notification feature can also be used for outbound survey campaigns and the solicitation of customer feedback.

Create Personalized Experiences

Leveraging the highly personalized smartphone environment is another powerful way to ensure great user experiences. With the precise identification of each device, and thus the subscriber who owns it, companies can now decide not only to present highly personalized information but also keep track of the history and usage patterns of each individual. This behavior can also be enriched by leveraging capabilities such as location services and near-field communication (NFC).
Take Advantage of New User Interface Capabilities

Finally, it is important to realize that smartphones offer the ability to reach customers in a variety of ways. They can interact with a mobile application either by touch, type or talk. Touch has always been critical, but the growing implementation of voice search (most notably by Google on the Android platform) has opened new frontiers for app developers. Free-form text and voice input, when complemented by powerful natural language processing systems, can provide superior search and help users bypass long and often counter-intuitive hierarchical menus.
While the adoption of smartphones continues to grow exponentially and the emergence of new and personalized customer care mobile applications comes into the mainstream, vendors need to make sure they design and build applications that are at least as smart as the phones that host them and leverage all properties and features of this new medium. If vendors keep this in mind, smartphones can truly become the next frontier for customer care.

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